The IRS has updated its simplified procedure for estates requesting an extension of time to make a portability election under Code Sec. 2010(c)(5)(A). The updated procedure replaces that provided in Rev. Proc. 2017-34. If the portability election is made, a decedent’s unused exclusion amount (the deceased spousal unused exclusion (DSUE) amount) is available to a surviving spouse to apply to transfers made […]
The IRS intends to amend the base erosion and anti-abuse tax (BEAT) regulations under Code Secs. 59A and 6038A to defer the applicability date of the reporting of qualified derivative payments (QDPs) until tax years beginning on or after January 1, 2025.
Background
Final BEAT regulations adopted with T.D. 9885 include rules under Code Secs. 59A and 6038A addressing the reporting of QDPs, which are not treated as base erosion payments for […]
John Hinman, Director, IRS Whistleblower Office highlighted the importance of whistleblower information in identifying noncompliance and reducing the tax gap in an executive column published by the IRS. Each year, the IRS receives thousands of award claims from individuals who identify taxpayers who may not be abiding by U.S. tax laws. The IRS Whistleblower Office ensures that award claims are reviewed by […]
A group of Senate Democrats is calling on the IRS to extend the filing deadline for those unable to file for and receive the advanced child tax credit (CTC) due to the processing backlog of individual taxpayer identification number (ITIN) applications.
In a July 14, 2022, letter to Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen and IRS Commissioner Charles Rettig, the Senators, led by Robert Menendez […]
The IRS has released a Fact Sheet to help taxpayers understand how and why agency representatives may contact them and how to identify them and avoid scams. Generally, the IRS sends a letter or written notice to a taxpayer in advance, but not always. Depending on the situation, IRS employees may first call or visit with a taxpayer. Further, the […]
The American Institute of CPAs offered the Internal Revenue Service a series of recommendations related to proposed regulations for required minimum distributions from individual retirement accounts.
The July 1, 2022, comment letter to the agency covered two specific areas: minimum distribution requirements for designated beneficiaries when death of the employee or IRA owner occurs after the required beginning date, and the definition of […]
The Government Accountability Office (GAO) issued a report on stimulus checks during the Coronavirus 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. From April 2020 to December 2021, the federal government made direct payments to taxpayers totaling $931 billion to address pandemic-related financial stress.
Report Findings
Some eligible taxpayers never received payments. Eligible taxpayers can still claim their payments through October 17. There were challenges for the […]
The Organisation for Economic Co-operations and Development (OECD) is delaying the implementation of Pillar One of the landmark agreement on international tax reform.
A new Progress Report on Pillar One, which includes “a comprehensive draft of the technical model rules to implement a new taxing right that will allow market jurisdictions to tax profits from some of the largest multinational enterprises,” will be open to […]
The IRS began its “Dirty Dozen” list for 2022, which includes potentially abusive arrangements that taxpayers should avoid. The tax scams in this series focus on four transactions that are wrongfully promoted and will likely attract additional agency compliance efforts in the future. Those four abusive transactions involve charitable remainder annuity trusts, Maltese individual retirement arrangements, foreign captive insurance and monetized installment […]
The IRS announced that is completing the processing on a key group of individual tax returns filed during 2021. Business paper returns filed in 2021 will follow shortly after. The Service began 2022 with a larger than usual inventory of paper tax returns and correspondence filed during 2021 due to the pandemic. The IRS will continue to work on the […]
Internal Revenue Service Commissioner Charles Rettig is pushing back on assertions that the agency is spending less time targeting wealthy taxpayers for audit in favor of lower income taxpayers.
“This is damaging to tax administration in this country when people say IRS audits more lower income people than higher income people,” Rettig told attendees June 23, 2022, at the NYU Tax Controversy […]
Republican members of the Senate Finance Committee are the latest group to call on the Internal Revenue Service to implement 2-D barcoding technology on individual tax forms.
“We are writing to strongly encourage the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) to work with tax return software companies to implement 2-D barcoding technology for use during the 2023 tax filing season for the 1040 […]
The IRS Whistleblower Office has released the fiscal year (FY) 2021 annual report to Congress. In FY 2021, the Whistleblower Office made 179 award payments to whistleblowers totaling $36,144,926, including 20 awards paid under Code Sec. 7623(b). Whistleblower claim numbers assigned in FY 2021 grew by 55 percent year over year and claim closures increased by 13 percent. Additionally, this year’s […]
Department of the Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen is continuing to promote the agreement on international taxes reached by most members of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development on a global corporate minimum tax, but acknowledged that its overall impact will be determined by the final details.
Testifying before the Senate Finance Committee at a June 7, 2022, hearing about the White House’s […]
The American Institute of CPAs is calling on Congress to fund the Internal Revenue Service at the level requested by the White House in its fiscal year 2023 budget request. Separately, the group offered its suggestions on the IRS Guidance Priority List. “In advance of the Fiscal Year 2023 appropriations cycle, we request that you fund the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) […]
The Department of the Treasury is continuing its push to get funding for much needed information technology infrastructure upgrades from Congress.
During a June 14, 2022, hearing before the Senate Appropriations Committee’s Subcommittee on Financial Services and General Government, Treasury Deputy Secretary Wally Adeyemo testified as to why the funds were needed.
The “IRS’ technology is decades out of date, written in a programming language […]
The U.S. Supreme Court has granted a petition for certiorari in the case of A. Bittner, CA-5, 2021-2 USTC ¶50,242 . In Bittner, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit held that each failure to report a qualifying foreign account on the annual Report of Foreign Bank and Financial Accounts (FBAR) constituted a separate reporting violation subject to penalty. This means that […]
During the National Small Business Week, May 1 to 7, the IRS highlighted tax benefits and resources tied to the theme for this year’s celebration: ” Building a Better America through Entrepreneurship.”.The IRS urged business taxpayers to take advantage of tax benefits for 2022, make estimated tax payments electronically, e-file payroll tax returns, and check out the Work Opportunity Credit.
The IRS urged […]
The Financial Crimes Enforcement Network is behind but making progress on implementing the Anti-Money Laundering Act of 2020 (which includes the Corporate Transparency Act), FinCEN Acting Director Himamauli Das told Congress.
According to written testimony provided to the House Committee on Financial Services prior to an April 28, 2022, hearing, Das noted that “timely and effective implementation of the AML Act, which includes the CTA, […]
The IRS has reminded taxpayers to create or review emergency preparedness plans for surviving natural disasters. The Service has designated the month of May to include National Hurricane Preparedness Week and National Wildfire Awareness Month. Further, the IRS has advised taxpayers to:
secure key documents such as tax returns, birth certificates, deeds, titles and insurance policies inside waterproof containers in a […]
Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen is calling on the United States and the European Union to get the global corporate minimum tax into law in their respective territories.
The “EU and the United States must show leadership by expeditiously implementing the global minimum tax in our domestic laws,” Yellen told attendees May 17, 2022, at the Brussels Economic Forum, according to her prepared remarks […]
The Internal Revenue Service continues to struggle with issues related to staff shortages, the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration said.
In a May 2, 2022, interim report on the 2022 filing season, the IG stated that “significant staffing shortages continue to hamper the IRS’s efforts to address backlog inventories and continue to affect the IRS’s ability to ensure that current year tax returns […]
A recent report by the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration primarily focused on the need for the Internal Revenue Service to expand its electronic filing capabilities also noted that the agency has destroyed some 30 million paper-filed documents in 2021.
“The continued inability to process backlogs of paper-filed tax returns contributed to management’s decision to destroy an estimated 30 million […]
WASHINGTON–The Internal Revenue Service’s Independent Office Of Appeals has seen its cycle times for handling appeals cases stretch to more than year during the COVID-19 pandemic, but the office is working to get it back to pre-pandemic levels.
Speaking May 13, 2022, at the American Bar Association’s May Tax Meeting, office Chief Andy Keyso provided an update on where the agency […]
The Internal Revenue Service is not providing taxpayers with sufficient tools to manage their accounts online, National Taxpayer Advocate Erin Collins said.
In an April 28, 2022, blog post, Collins stated that despite progress in the development of its online account application, “the IRS has yet to develop and adopt a one-stop solution for online and digital offerings that combine communications and interaction […]
