Accounting & Taxes
Funding spurs IRS improvements, but challenges remain, commissioner says
Commissioner Danny Werfel said the IRS is “reversing situations that have long hampered the IRS and frustrated taxpayers.” Treasury and the IRS announced continued improvements in digital systems, attributing those to funding from the Inflation Reduction Act.
Categories: Accounting & Taxes
FinCEN estimates millions of hours will be spent seeking BOI access
Almost 16,000 entities will spend over 8.7 million hours seeking access to beneficial ownership information in the first year, FinCEN estimated in a new notice.
Categories: Accounting & Taxes
Final and proposed regs. issued on retirement plan RMDs
The final regulations reflect changes to the required minimum distribution rules made by the SECURE Act and SECURE 2.0 and generally follow proposed regulations issued in 2022.
Categories: Accounting & Taxes
IRS collects $1 billion from high-income people who owed back taxes
The IRS is collecting on tax liabilities that were not “even in dispute,” Commissioner Danny Werfel said, but the IRS did not previously have the resources to pursue payment.
Categories: Accounting & Taxes
Proposed regs. address interest recapture on excess COVID-19 credits
The proposed regulations apply to overpayments of interest on erroneous refunds of COVID-19 credits paid on or after July 2.
Categories: Accounting & Taxes
Tax pros: IRS improving, but getting the right answer takes too long
A survey by the AICPA shows that almost two-thirds of tax professionals say it takes over 90 days to get a substantive response from the IRS to correspondence.
Categories: Accounting & Taxes
Final regs. issued for 1% excise tax on corporate stock repurchases
The final regulations provide guidance regarding the reporting and payment of the excise tax on repurchases of corporate stock made after Dec. 31, 2022.
Categories: Accounting & Taxes
IRS issues final regs. on reporting requirements for digital assets
The final regulations require custodial brokers to report transactions on Form 1099-DA, which the IRS will release soon. A different set of final regulations with rules for decentralized, or noncustodial, brokers will be issued later.
Categories: Accounting & Taxes
Supreme Court overrules 40-year-old Chevron doctrine
The Court held that the APA requires courts to exercise their independent judgment in deciding whether an agency has acted within its statutory authority and not to defer to an agency’s interpretation of the law simply because a statute is ambiguous.
Categories: Accounting & Taxes
Settlement offers to be sent on syndicated conservation easements
The IRS is making a time-limited settlement offer to certain taxpayers who participated in syndicated conservation easements. The terms will require “substantial concession” of income tax benefits and the imposition of some penalties.
Categories: Accounting & Taxes
‘Unconscionable’ delays in ID theft cases mar IRS tax season: report
In her midyear report to Congress, National Taxpayer Advocate Erin Collins writes that, as of April, the IRS was taking over 22 months to resolve cases in its identity theft victim assistance unit, which had about 500,000 unresolved cases.
Categories: Accounting & Taxes
Final regs. issued on conservation easement deduction disallowance
The IRS on Monday issued final regulations providing guidance on the new rule that disallows charitable contribution deductions for certain conservation easement contributions by partnerships and other passthrough entities.
Categories: Accounting & Taxes
Supreme Court decision on Chevron doctrine will affect tax pros
The Court will rule by the end of its term Friday on the fate of the Chevron doctrine, which requires courts to give deference to a reasonable interpretation of an ambiguous statute by a government agency, including the IRS.
Categories: Accounting & Taxes
Exceptions to penalty on early retirement plan distributions outlined
The IRS issued guidance for exceptions for emergency personal expense distributions and for domestic abuse victim distributions.
Categories: Accounting & Taxes
IRS: Review of 1 million ERC claims reveals most show signs of risk
The IRS says that at least 10% of employee retention credit claims will be denied in the coming weeks and that at least 60% of claims show an “unacceptable” level of risk. The IRS will leave in place its moratorium on processing a majority of recent claims.
Categories: Accounting & Taxes
Supreme Court issues narrow opinion upholding Sec. 965 transition tax
The Supreme Court upheld the mandatory repatriation tax as a valid exercise of Congress’s taxing authority. The Court did not reach the question of whether income must be realized to be taxable.
Categories: Accounting & Taxes
Regs. cover green energy incentive wage and apprenticeship requirements
Under new final regulations issued by the IRS, taxpayers can generally increase the base amount of certain credits or deductions by five times when they meet prevailing wage and apprenticeship requirements.
Categories: Accounting & Taxes
IRS moves to end ‘shell game’ of basis-shifting transactions
The Service said it will release new proposed regulations and a revenue ruling to challenge the use of basis-shifting transactions used by complex partnerships in moves that could add over $50 billion to government coffers over 10 years.
Categories: Accounting & Taxes
IRS gives another limited estimated corporate AMT underpayment waiver
The IRS issued a notice extending earlier relief for a corporation’s failure to pay the part of estimated income tax attributable to the revised corporate alternative minimum tax.
Categories: Accounting & Taxes
9 months into ERC claim processing moratorium, still a waiting game
New employee retention credit (ERC) claims continue to be filed, and the IRS still has a backlog of claims from before a processing moratorium was announced in September. National Taxpayer Advocate Erin Collins says “soon” is the answer to when the moratorium will end. Meanwhile, some business owners sit and wait.
Categories: Accounting & Taxes