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Weekly IRS Roundup April 8 – April 12, 2024

Check out our summary of significant Internal Revenue Service (IRS) guidance and relevant tax matters for the week of April 8, 2024 – April 12, 2024.

April 8, 2024: The IRS released Internal Revenue Bulletin 2024-15, which includes the following:

  • Announcement 2024-15, which revokes the § 501(c)(3) determination for specified organizations and stipulates that contributions made to said organizations by individual donors are no longer deductible under § 170(b)(1)(A) of the Internal Revenue Code (Code).
  • Notice 2024-31, which provides adjustments to the limitation on housing expenses for purposes of Code Section 911 for specific locations for 2024.
  • Revenue Procedure 2024-17, which provides a waiver under Code Section 911(d)(4) concerning time requirements for individuals who must leave a foreign country because of war, civil unrest or similar adverse conditions and are electing to exclude their foreign earned income. The revenue procedure also adds Ukraine, Belarus, Sudan, Haiti, Niger and Iraq to the list of waiver countries for tax year 2023 for which the minimum time requirements are waived.
  • Revenue Procedure 2024-18, which supplements Revenue Procedure 2023-32 by publishing amounts of unused housing credit carryovers allocated to qualified states under Code Section 42(h)(3)(D) for calendar year 2023 (in addition to those amounts published in Revenue Procedure 2023-32).
  • Final regulations, which describe rules for the elective payment of Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 tax credit amounts in a taxable year, including definitions and special rules applicable to partnerships and S corporations and regarding repayment of excessive payments. The regulations also describe rules related to a required IRS pre-filing registration process.
  • Final regulations, which describe rules for the elective payment of the advanced manufacturing investment credit under the Creating Helpful Incentives to Produce Semiconductors Act of 2022, including special rules applicable to partnerships and S corporations, repayment of excessive payments, and basis reduction and recapture. The regulations also describe rules related to a required IRS pre-filing registration process.

April 8, 2024: The IRS warned taxpayers about bad tax information on social media that can potentially lead to identity theft and tax problems.

April 9, 2024: The IRS warned tax professionals and businesses to remain vigilant and protect themselves against a continuing barrage of email spearfishing attempts, especially one particular type known as “new client” scams where identity thieves pose as potential clients using fake emails in hopes of stealing valuable information.

April 9, 2024: The IRS reminded taxpayers that its Direct File pilot is open to eligible taxpayers in 12 pilot states and allows the filing of 2023 federal tax returns online for free and directly with the IRS.

April 9, 2024: The IRS released proposed regulations that would implement the statutory netting rule, which reduces the aggregate fair market value of stock repurchased by a taxpayer during a certain taxable year. Additionally, [...]

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Weekly IRS Roundup January 22 – January 26, 2024

Check out our summary of significant Internal Revenue Service (IRS) guidance and relevant tax matters for the week of January 22, 2024 – January 26, 2024.

January 22, 2024: The IRS released Internal Revenue Bulletin 2024-4, which includes Revenue Procedure 2024-8. This revenue procedure lists qualified census tracts used to determine income limits for targeted area residences for purposes of Internal Revenue Code (Code) § 143(a), dealing with qualified mortgage bonds, and Code § 25(c), dealing with mortgage credit certificates.

January 22, 2024: The IRS announced that individuals and businesses in parts of Connecticut affected by severe storms, flooding and a potential dam breach that began on January 10 now have until June 17, 2024, to file various federal individual and business tax returns and make tax payments.

January 22, 2024: The IRS reminded taxpayers that they must disclose whether they received or disposed of digital assets, such as cryptocurrency, on their 2023 personal income tax returns.

January 22, 2024: The IRS announced that IRS Free File is now available for the 2024 filing season. IRS Free File is generally available to taxpayers with adjusted gross income of $79,000 or less. Additional information can be accessed here.

January 23, 2024: The IRS announced that work is underway on the Simple Notice Initiative, which will review and redesign various IRS notices. The IRS intends to focus first on the notices that are most commonly sent to individual taxpayers.

January 23, 2024: The IRS published a Request for Information from the US Department of the Treasury, Employee Benefits Security Administration, US Department of Labor, and Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation following the directive provided under the SECURE 2.0 Act of 2022 to review the existing reporting and disclosure requirements for retirement plans. Comments are due by April 22, 2024, and each agency will be required to report to US Congress on December 29, 2025. Reports will offer recommendations for simplifying, standardizing and improving reporting and disclosure requirements.

January 25, 2024: The IRS issued Notice 2024-23, which provides special relief under Code § 529 for certain rollovers to or from Maryland Prepaid College Trust (MPCT) accounts. Due to accounting discrepancies and administrative issues, access to MPCT interest earnings was frozen in April 2022 and restored in July 2023. As a result of the freeze, many taxpayers executed a qualified rollover out of MPCT accounts. Notice 2024-23 permits taxpayers to transfer funds back into an MPCT account in a qualified rollover even though the transfer of funds out of the MPCT account may have occurred within 12 months of the transfer back into an MPCT account.

January 26, 2024: In the spirit of the IRS’s annual Earned Income Tax Credit Awareness Day outreach campaign, the IRS posted information on the Earned Income Tax Credit to help educate low- to middle-income taxpayers who may be eligible to [...]

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Issues With the IRS? Here’s Why More Taxpayers Should Enlist the Help of the Taxpayer Advocate Service

The Taxpayer Advocate Service (TAS) recently released its annual report to US Congress. The report highlights the TAS’s accomplishments in 2023 and its continued areas of focus and concern in the new year. While the report is an interesting read, in this article we discuss why it’s beneficial for taxpayers to have the TAS involved in their cases.

Created in 1996 by Congress, the TAS is an independent agency within the Internal Revenue Service (IRS). Its mission is to assist taxpayers with systematic issues involving the IRS. For example, suppose you are owed a refund and have been waiting to receive the check for two years now. Or perhaps you changed the name of your business, and the IRS keeps rejecting your returns because the name in their system does not match the new name because the name change has not been processed yet by the IRS. The TAS can typically help in these specific examples and in other similar IRS snafus.

To start the process, file Form 911 with your local TAS office. We suggest providing a comprehensive explanation of the issue you are facing and the steps you have taken to try and fix it in your Form 911. This will help the TAS advocate assigned to your case with getting you a solution quicker.

Practice Point: The TAS is not only for individual taxpayers. We have sought their assistance for all sorts of taxpayers, including large multinational public companies. We cannot emphasize enough how much faster it is to resolve an IRS issue with the help of the TAS rather than calling the general IRS service phone number or writing countless letters to the IRS.




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Tax Court Rules Limited Partners May Be Subject to Self-Employment Tax

On November 28, 2023, the US Tax Court granted partial summary judgment in favor of the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) in Soroban Capital Partners LP v. Commissioner and held that “limited partners” are defined functionally—not by state law—for purposes of Internal Revenue Code (IRC) Section 1402(a)(13), which excludes distributions to a “limited partner, as such” from self-employment tax.

Partners are generally required to include their distributive shares of partnership income in their net earnings from self-employment under IRC Sections 1402(a) and 702(a)(8). IRC Section 1402(a)(13), however, provides an exception. It excludes “the distributive share of any item of income or loss of a limited partner, as such, other than [certain] guaranteed payments” from self-employment tax. However, in the context of IRC Section 1402(a)(13), “limited partner” is not defined. The Tax Court previously held that “limited partners” are determined functionally (e.g., by what they actually do with respect to the partnership), not by their status or title under state law, in the context of a limited liability partnership. (See Renkemeyer v. Commissioner, 136 T.C. 137 (2011).) Soroban argued that in the distinct context of a limited liability partnership, plain statutory meaning, legislative history, past guidance from the US Department of the Treasury (Treasury) and the IRS, and policy considerations all pointed to the same conclusion: “limited partner” for purposes of the self-employment tax must be determined by reference to state law.

The Tax Court disagreed. The Court fixed its attention on the phrase “limited partner, as such” and found that under the canon of construction against surplusage, the words “as such” demonstrate “that the limited partner exception applies only to a limited partner who is functioning as a limited partner.” To the extent legislative history or Soroban’s “myriad other arguments” suggest otherwise, they cannot “overcome the plain meaning of the statute.”

The Tax Court held that IRC Section 1402(a)(13) applies only to “passive investors” and excludes “earnings from a mere investment” only. Therefore, the Court “must examine the functions and roles of the limited partners in the partnership to determine whether their shares of earnings are excluded from net earnings from self-employment.” The Court concluded that it has jurisdiction to complete this task during partnership-level proceedings because the applicability of IRC Section 1402(a)(13) “is a partnership item” under Treasury Regulation § 301.6231(a)(3)-1.

Practice Point: The Court’s holding in Soroban will likely provide the IRS with additional incentive to audit taxpayers as part of the IRS’s Self-Employment Contributions Act compliance campaign, which the IRS placed on hold to see “what develops in” cases like Soroban. This issue has been hotly contested in the Tax Court, with several cases currently being litigated, including Denham Capital Management LP v. Commissioner, Docket. No. 9973-23, and Point72 Asset Management LP v. Commissioner, Docket. No. 12752-23. We will see whether the taxpayer in Soroban seeks review by an appellate court. In the meantime, if you have this issue, we advise consulting with your tax professional to ensure you are poised to [...]

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IRS Announces New Compliance Initiatives to Collect More Corporate Tax Using Inflation Reduction Act Funds

On October 20, 2023, the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) announced new initiatives “to ensure large corporations pay taxes owed.” These initiatives leverage the substantial additional congressional funding that was given to the IRS thanks to the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 (IRA). (We previously reported on how IRS enforcement is impacted by IRA funding here.) The announcement explains:

The IRS is working to ensure large corporate and high-income individual filers pay the taxes they owe. Prior to the Inflation Reduction Act, more than a decade of budget cuts prevented the IRS from keeping pace with the increasingly complicated set of tools that the wealthiest taxpayers use to hide their income and evade paying their share. The IRS is now taking swift and aggressive action to close this gap.

The announcement also outlines three new initiatives aimed at collecting tax revenue from large corporations:

1. The large foreign-owned corporations transfer pricing initiative. The IRS will focus its attention on US subsidiaries of foreign companies that distribute goods in the United States. Based on data likely received through the now retired Inbound Distributor Campaign, the IRS believes that some of these foreign companies “report losses or exceedingly low margins year after year through the improper use of transfer pricing to avoid reporting an appropriate amount of U.S. profits.” To jump start its initiative, the IRS will be notifying 150 subsidiaries of large foreign corporations “to reiterate their U.S. tax obligations and incentivize self-correction.” These “soft letters” can be a prelude to an audit.

2. The IRS will expand its Large Corporate Compliance (LCC) program. We previously reported on the LCC program, which focuses on noncompliance by using data analytics to identify large corporate taxpayers for audit. With an increased number of staff as a result of IRA funding, the IRS will commence examination of an additional 60 corporations that were selected using a combination of artificial intelligence and subject matter expertise. Key selection metrics will include factors from the various active compliance campaigns.

3. Cracking down on the abuse of former Internal Revenue Code (IRC) Section 199 domestic production activity deduction. The IRS has been battling taxpayers’ IRC Section 199 deductions since its promulgation. We have reported extensively on this topic over the years. The battle between the IRS and taxpayers has heated up in the wake of the repeal of IRC Section 199, which precipitated taxpayers filing billions of dollars of refund claims. The recent $1.8 billion taxpayer loss in Bats Global Market Holdings, Inc., No. 22-9002 (10th Cir. July 12, 2023), aff’g 158 T.C. No. 5 (2022), has clearly emboldened the IRS to intensify its existing Section 199 audit campaign to address noncompliance and review high-risk claims.

In the announcement, the IRS also reported that it has been pursuing high income, high-wealth individuals who have either not filed their taxes or failed to pay recognized tax debt. The IRS is focused on taxpayers with more [...]

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Weekly IRS Roundup August 7 – August 11, 2023

Check out our summary of significant Internal Revenue Service (IRS) guidance and relevant tax matters for the week of August 7, 2023 – August 11, 2023.

August 7, 2023: The IRS published Internal Revenue Bulletin 2023-32, which includes:

  • Notice 2023-53, setting forth updates on the corporate bond monthly yield curve and the corresponding spot segment rates for July 2023 used under Code Section 417(e)(3)(D); the 24-month average segment rates applicable for July 2023; and the 30-year Treasury rates, as reflected by the application of Code Section 430(h)(2)(C)(iv).
  • Proposed regulations that would rescind the moral objection exemption to providing contraceptive services in health plans subject to the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act and establish a new individual contraceptive arrangement that individuals enrolled in plans or coverage sponsored, arranged, or provided by objecting entities may use to obtain contraceptive services at no cost directly from a provider or facility that furnishes contraceptive services.
  • Final regulations that authorize the assessment and collection of erroneous refunds of various credits in the normal course of processing employment tax returns.
  • Announcement 2023-22, revoking tax-exempt status for certain organizations.
  • Notice 2023-55, providing temporary relief in defining a “foreign income tax” for purposes of Code Sections 901 and 903 for 2022 and 2023 tax years.
  • Revenue Ruling 2023-13, listing the applicable federal rates for August 2023.

August 7, 2023: The IRS reminded eligible contractors who build or substantially reconstruct qualified new energy-efficient homes that they might qualify for a tax credit of up to $5,000 per home under Code Section 45L. The credit amount depends on the type of home, the home’s energy efficiency and the date when someone buys or leases the home.

August 8, 2023: The IRS released part four of a five-part “Protect Your Client; Protect Yourself” summer series from the Security Summit, a public-private partnership that works to protect the tax system against tax-related identity theft and fraud. This publication provides information to help protect sensitive taxpayer data.

August 8, 2023: The IRS released Tax Tip 2023-99, explaining the various ways in which scammers may impersonate the IRS, including by mail, electronically and even in person.

August 8, 2023: The IRS’s Large Business and International Division announced a compliance campaign focused on taxpayers who may have inflated their reported cost of goods sold to reduce their taxable income.

August 9, 2023: The IRS warned businesses and tax professionals to be aware of a range of compliance issues associated with employee stock ownership plans (ESOPs). The IRS indicated that it is aware of promoted arrangements using ESOPs that are potentially abusive. Such arrangements may include schemes where a business creates a “management” S corporation whose stock is wholly owned by an ESOP for the sole purpose of diverting taxable business income to the ESOP. The S [...]

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The Government Flexes Its Summons Muscles

Two recent decisions confirmed the broad administrative summons authority of the Internal Revenue Service (IRS). In the first, the US Supreme Court resolved a circuit conflict regarding notice requirements for third-party IRS summonses. In the second, the US Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit confirmed the primacy of the Internal Revenue Code (IRC) over state law insurance and privacy laws.

Polselli v. Internal Revenue Service[1]

Mr. Polselli owed over $2 million to the IRS, was not forthcoming with payment and, moreover, appeared to be hiding assets with accommodating parties. The IRS assigned a revenue officer to track down where his assets might be. The investigation pointed to several potential repositories of relevant financial information, including a law firm, the taxpayer’s wife and a company through which Mr. Polselli had made one tax payment of $300,000. The officer issued summonses under the authority of IRC section 7602 to three banks where the law firm, the wife and the company had accounts. The officer did not give notice to any of the third parties prior to issuing the summons. After learning of the summonses from the banks, the third parties moved to quash.

The precise question was whether the third parties were entitled to notice under IRC section 7609(a)(1) and thereby had standing to move to quash the summonses or whether the exception to the notice requirement under IRC section 7609(c)(2)(D)(i), where a summons is “issued in aid of the collection of an assessment made [against the delinquent taxpayer],” applied, thus resulting in lack of standing and ultimately lack of jurisdiction. The petitioners relied upon a Ninth Circuit decision that narrowed the scope of the IRC section 7609(c)(2)(D)(i) exception to those circumstances where the delinquent taxpayer had proprietary interest in the information sought by the summons. The Sixth, Seventh and Tenth Circuits found no such limitation on the exception in part because the statute did not contain one.

The Supreme Court unanimously rejected the Ninth Circuit’s application of IRC section 77609(c)(2)(D)(i) and found the petitioners had no standing to quash. At the risk of oversimplification, the Supreme Court opened the American Heritage Dictionary of 1969, looked up the word “aid” and determined, consistent with other relevant parts of the statute, that Congress intended to use the ordinary meaning of the word “aid,” i.e., help or assist. Was the effort to locate the taxpayer’s financial connections and maneuvers through the petitioners’ bank records intended to “help” in the goal of collecting the $2 million? Yes. Implicit in this conclusion is a requirement that there is some evidence that third parties have a financial connection with the taxpayer, as opposed to the IRS randomly picking bank accounts. However, the Court declined to opine on any such requirement as that question was not specifically argued. It did note the Government’s admission that some financial connection must exist to establish “aid” in the collection of the assessment.

United States v. State of Delaware Dept. of Insurance [2]

This case centers on the intersection [...]

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Weekly IRS Roundup April 3 – April 7, 2023

Check out our summary of significant Internal Revenue Service (IRS) guidance and relevant tax matters for the week of April 3, 2023 – April 7, 2023.

April 3, 2023: The IRS released Internal Revenue Bulletin 2023-14, which highlights the following:

  • Notice 2023-25: This notice provides guidance on the corporate bond monthly yield curve, the corresponding spot segment rates and the 24-month average segment rates. It also provides guidance as to the interest rate on 30-year Treasury securities as in effect for plan years beginning before 2008 and the 30-year Treasury weighted average rate.
  • Revenue Ruling 23-6: This revenue ruling provides the applicable federal rates for federal income tax purposes for April 2023. The annual short-term rate is 3.67%, the mid-term rate is 3.14% and the long-term rate is 3.04%.

April 3, 2023: The IRS released Notice 2023-31, announcing an Extension of the Transition Period for the Single-Country Exception Under Section 903.

April 3, 2023: The IRS announced special Saturday hours at Taxpayer Assistance Centers. The final Saturday opening will be May 13, 2023, from 9:00 am to 4:00 pm.

April 3, 2023: The IRS released the last entry in its Dirty Dozen campaign, cautioning taxpayers to beware of promoters peddling bogus tax schemes aimed at reducing or avoiding taxes.

April 3, 2023: The IRS announced that Arkansas storm victims now have until July 31, 2023, to file various federal individual and business tax returns and make tax payments as a result of storms that occurred on March 31, 2023. Relief is available to anyone in an area designated by the Federal Emergency Management Agency as qualifying for individual or public assistance. The current list of eligible localities is available here.

April 3, 2023: The IRS reminded taxpayers that tax credits are available for a portion of the qualifying expenses related to energy improvements to their homes. Taxpayers can claim either the Energy Efficient Home Improvement Credit or the Residential Energy Clean Property Credit for the year when qualifying improvements are made.

April 3, 2023: The IRS released Tax Tip 2023-43, reminding taxpayers that IRS.gov has tax information in seven languages: Spanish, Chinese Traditional, Chinese Simplified, Korean, Russian, Vietnamese and Haitian Creole.

April 4, 2023: The IRS released Revenue Procedure 2023-12, which updates the procedures for exempt organizations determination letters with respect to the electronically submitted Form 8940, Request for Miscellaneous Determination. This modification to Revenue Procedure 2023-5 provides that the electronic submission process is the exclusive means of submitting a completed Form 8940, except for submissions eligible for the 90-day transition relief.

April 4, 2023: The IRS announced guidance related to the eligibility requirement for energy communities for the bonus credit program under the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 (IRA). Notice 2023-29 describes certain [...]

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Weekly IRS Roundup March 20 – March 24, 2023

Check out our summary of significant Internal Revenue Service (IRS) guidance and relevant tax matters for the week of March 20, 2023 – March 24, 2023.

March 20, 2023: The IRS released Internal Revenue Bulletin 2023-12, which highlights the following:

  • Notice 2023-22: This notice advises state and local housing credit agencies that allocate low-income housing tax credits under Section 42, as well as states and other issuers of tax-exempt private activity bonds under Section 141, of the population figures to use in calculating the (1) state housing credit ceiling under Section 42(h), (2) private activity bond volume cap under Section 146 and (3) private activity bond volume limit under Section 142(k).

March 20, 2023: The IRS announced tips to avoid processing delays and refund adjustments as the April 18, filing deadline approaches. The tips include gathering all tax documents, filing electronically, using the correct filing status, double-checking names and social security numbers, answering the digital assets question and reporting all taxable income.

March 20, 2023: The IRS announced a new entry into the annual Dirty Dozen list of tax scams: promoter claims involving the Employee Retention Credit (ERC). Some third parties continue to widely advertise services that target taxpayers who may not be eligible for the ERC. The advertisements, along with the increased prevalence of websites touting how easy it is to qualify for the ERC, suggest that the abusive claims may be legitimate. The annual list of schemes is aimed at raising awareness of aggressive promoters and con artists. These schemes put people at financial risk and increase the chances of identity theft.

March 20, 2023: The IRS released Tax Tip 2023-35, providing options for taxpayers who cannot pay their tax bill by April 18. The IRS also reminded taxpayers to still file their tax returns even if they cannot pay to avoid a failure-to-file penalty.

March 21, 2023: The IRS announced that it is requesting feedback regarding the tax treatment of a non-fungible token (NFT) as a collectible under the tax law in Notice 2023-27. An NFT is a unique digital identifier that is recorded using distributed ledger technology and may be used to certify the authenticity and ownership of an associated right or asset. The guidance also requests comments on the treatment of NFTs as collectibles and describes how the IRS intends to determine whether an NFT is a collectible until further guidance is issued.

March 21, 2023: The IRS issued proposed regulations that provide guidance on the implementation of the Advanced Manufacturing Investment Credit, established by the Creating Helpful Incentives to Produce Semiconductors Act of 2022 (CHIPS Act). The credit incentivizes the manufacture of semiconductors and semiconductor manufacturing equipment within the United States.

March 21, 2023: The IRS cautioned taxpayers to watch out for scammers using email and text messages to [...]

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