TAX CONTROVERSY 360

Weekly IRS Roundup February 5 – February 9, 2024

by Kevin Spencer, Evan Walters and Jeremy Kass | Feb 13, 2024 | IRS Guidance, Tax Reform, Tax Refunds

Check out our summary of significant Internal Revenue Service (IRS) guidance and relevant tax matters for the week of February 5, 2024 – February 9, 2024.

February 5, 2024: The IRS released Internal Revenue Bulletin 2024-5, which includes the following:

Announcement 2024-4, which clarifies that until the IRS issues new final regulations under Internal Revenue Code (Code) Section 6050I implementing the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, at this time, digital assets are not required to be included when determining whether cash received in a single transaction (or two or more related transactions) has a value exceeding the $10,000 reporting threshold.
Notice 2024-21, which provides guidance on the corporate bond monthly yield curve, the corresponding spot segment rates used under Section 417(e)(3), and the 24-month average segment rates under Code Section 430(h)(2).
Notice 2024-22, which provides initial guidance on the anti-abuse rules under Code Section 402A(e)(12) to assist in the implementation of the SECURE 2.0 Act of 2022’s Section 127 provisions.
Final regulations, which provide guidance on changes made by the Pension Protection Act of 2006 to the prescribed interest rate and mortality table and other guidance, including rules for the treatment of preretirement mortality discounts and Social Security-level income options.
Revenue Ruling 2024-3, which provides the February 2024 applicable federal rates.

February 5, 2024: The IRS announced that individuals and businesses in parts of Maine affected by severe storms and flooding that began on December 17, 2023, now have until June 17, 2024, to file various federal individual and business tax returns and make tax payments.

February 6, 2024: The IRS revised frequently asked questions for Form 1099-K, Payment Card and Third Party Network Transactions, providing more general information for taxpayers, including common situations, along with clarity as to which organizations should submit Forms 1099-K.

February 6, 2024: The IRS issued Revenue Procedure 2024-13, which provides two tables of limitations on depreciation deductions for owners of passenger automobiles placed in service during calendar year 2024 and a table of dollar amounts that must be used to determine income inclusions by lessees of passenger automobiles with a lease term beginning in calendar year 2024.

February 6, 2024: The IRS reminded taxpayers that through new elective payment and transfer options, applicable businesses; tax-exempt organizations; or entities such as state, local, and tribal governments can take advantage of certain tax credits and apply these options to certain clean energy and manufacturing credits. Eligible taxpayers can register using the IRA/CHIPS Pre-Filing Registration Tool.

February 7, 2024: The IRS issued Revenue Procedure 2024-12, which offers a temporary extension for providing certain seller reports under Code Sections 25E and 30D.

February 7, 2024: The IRS launched a new page on IRS.gov that explains the Employer-Provided Childcare Credit, which offers employers a tax credit of up [...]

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Weekly IRS Roundup January 22 – January 26, 2024

by Kevin Spencer, Evan Walters and Jeremy Kass | Jan 30, 2024 | IRS Guidance, Tax Reform, Tax Refunds

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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Weekly IRS Roundup January 15 – January 19, 2024

by Kevin Spencer, Evan Walters and Jeremy Kass | Jan 23, 2024 | IRS Guidance, Tax Reform

Check out our summary of significant Internal Revenue Service (IRS) guidance and relevant tax matters for the week of January 15, 2024 – January 19, 2024.

January 16, 2024: The IRS released Internal Revenue Bulletin 2024-3, which includes the following:

Notice 2024-10, which provides guidance on the corporate alternative minimum tax, including rules for determining the “adjusted financial statement income” of a US shareholder when a controlled foreign corporation pays a dividend and modifications to Notice 2023-64.
Proposed regulations, which provide guidance on the new Internal Revenue Code (Code) Section 45X advanced manufacturing production credit established by the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 (IRA). This credit is intended to incentivize domestic production of certain green energy components.
Final regulations regarding penalty protections for de minimis errors on information returns and payee statements.

January 16, 2024: The IRS released transitional guidance under Code Section 60501 on reporting transactions involving the receipt of digital assets and clarified that at this time, digital assets are not required to be included when determining whether cash received in a single transaction (or two or more related transactions) meets the reporting threshold.

January 16, 2024: The IRS issued Revenue Ruling 2024-3, which provides the February 2024 applicable federal rates.

January 16, 2024: The IRS reminded taxpayers of their rights under the Taxpayer Bill of Rights, which includes 10 rights all taxpayers have any time they interact with the IRS. Those rights include privacy, confidentiality and the right to appeal an IRS decision in an independent forum.

January 17, 2024: The IRS announced the appointment of 12 new members to the Internal Revenue Service Advisory Council, a public forum that provides the IRS and agency leaders with feedback, observations and recommendations related to tax administration.

January 18, 2024: The IRS reached a major milestone in the implementation of key provisions in the IRA as more than 1,000 projects have now been registered through the new IRS Energy Credits Online tool.

January 18, 2024: The IRS alerted a limited group of tax-exempt organizations subject to unrelated business income tax that they will not be able to electronically file Form 990-T, Exempt Organization Business Income Tax Return, or Form 1120-POL, U.S. Income Tax Return for Certain Political Organizations, until March 17, 2024.

January 19, 2024: The IRS issued Notice 2024-20, which provides guidance on the qualified alternative fuel vehicle refueling property credit under Code Section 30C. The IRS intends to issue additional guidance via proposed regulations.

January 19, 2024: The IRS released its weekly list of written determinations (e.g., Private Letter Rulings, Technical Advice Memorandums and Chief Counsel Advice).

Weekly IRS Roundup January 8 – January 12, 2024

by Kevin Spencer, Evan Walters and John Zhang | Jan 16, 2024 | IRS Guidance, Tax Reform, Tax Refunds

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

January 8, 2024: The IRS released Internal Revenue Bulletin 2024-2, which includes the following:

Notice 2024-7, which provides eligible taxpayers with automatic relief from additions to tax for failure to pay with respect to certain income tax returns for 2020 and 2021.
Announcement 2024-3, which explains Voluntary Disclosure Program eligibility criteria, terms and procedures for taxpayers to resolve refunds or credits for erroneous Employee Retention Credit (ERC) claims.
Notice 2024-2, which provides guidance on certain SECURE 2.0 Act of 2022 provisions.
Notice 2024-3, which sets forth the 2023 Cumulative List of Changes in Plan Qualification Requirements for Defined Contribution Qualified Pre-approved Plans.
Notice 2024-4, which updates the corporate bond monthly yield curve and corresponding spot segment rates for December 2023 used under Internal Revenue Code (Code) § 417(e)(3)(D), the 24-month average segment rates for December 2023 and the 30-year Treasury rates, as reflected by the application of § 430(h)(2)(C)(iv).
Revenue Ruling 2024-1, which provides covered compensation tables under § 401(1)(5)(E) for the 2024 plan year.
Notice 2024-1, which provides the percentage increase for calculating the qualifying payment amounts for items and services furnished in 2024 for purposes of Code §§ 9816 and 9817, §§ 716 and 717 of the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974, and §§ 2799A-1 and 2799A-2 of the Public Health Service Act.
Notice 2024-6, which provides additional guidance on the sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) credit, including methods and Renewable Fuel Standard program safe harbors used to qualify for and calculate the SAF credit.
Announcement 2024-1, which revokes § 501(c)(3) determinations for certain organizations and stipulates that contributions made to the organizations by individual donors are no longer deductible under § 170(b)(1)(A).
Notice 2024-5, which provides a safe harbor for the incremental cost of certain qualified commercial clean vehicles placed in service in calendar year 2024 for purposes of the credit pursuant to § 45W.
Notice 2024-8, which provides the optional 2024 standard mileage rates that taxpayers can use when computing the deductible costs of operating an automobile for business, charitable, medical or moving expense purposes.
Notice 2024-9, which notes the IRS’s intent to propose regulations concerning statutorily required exceptions to the elective payment phaseout for entities that do not satisfy the domestic content requirements of §§ 45, 45Y, 48 and 48E. The notice also provides the transitional process for how applicable entities can claim the statutory exception for elective payment projects that begin construction during calendar year 2024 and fail to satisfy the domestic content requirement.
Notice 2024-11, which updates the list of treaties that meet the requirements of § 1(h)(11)(C)(i)(II) as it relates to [...]

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

by Kevin Spencer and Evan Walters | Jan 12, 2024 | Uncategorized

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.