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Weekly IRS Roundup January 30 – February 5, 2022

Presented below is our summary of significant Internal Revenue Service (IRS) guidance and relevant tax matters for the week of January 30, 2022 – February 5, 2022. Additionally, for continuing updates on the tax impact of COVID-19, please visit our resource page here.

January 31, 2022: The IRS issued Revenue Procedure 2022-14, providing updates to the list of accounting method changes to which the automatic change procedures of Revenue Procedure 2015-33, as modified, apply.

January 31, 2022: The IRS issued a news release in advance of the 2021 filing season, providing a Fact Sheet that contains answers to frequently asked questions (FAQs) regarding the Child Tax Credit as expanded by the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 (ARPA).

February 1, 2022: The IRS issued a news release, providing an update to the Fact Sheet released the previous day regarding the Child Tax Credit as expanded by ARPA.

February 1, 2022: The IRS issued a news release, setting forth certain administrative and logistical issues for taxpayers to consider in the process of filing an individual income tax return for 2021.

February 2, 2022: The IRS issued a news release, providing an update to a Fact Sheet containing answers to FAQs regarding the 2020 Recovery Rebate Credit, enacted as part of the Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security (CARES) Act.

February 3, 2022: The IRS issued a news release warning taxpayers to watch out for certain common tax scams and providing resources for victims of tax-related identity theft.

February 4, 2022: The IRS issued a news release announcing special Saturday hours at certain IRS Taxpayer Assistance Centers around the country to provide in-person assistance to taxpayers during the 2021 filing season.

February 4, 2022: The IRS issued an Action on Decision announcing its nonacquiescence to the holding in Quezada v. IRS, 982 F.3d 931 (5th Cir. 2020). The ruling held that the period of limitations on assessing backup withholding liability begins to run when the taxpayer files Forms 1040 and 1099-MISC that omit payee taxpayer identification numbers.

February 4, 2022: The IRS released its weekly list of written determinations (e.g., Private Letter Rulings, Technical Advice Memorandums and Chief Counsel Advice).

Special thanks to Le Chen in our Washington, DC, office for this week’s roundup.




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IRS Announces Nonacquiescence in Mayo Tax Regulation Invalidity Holding

We previously wrote here and here about decisions made by the District Court of Minnesota and the US Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit in Mayo Clinic v. United States regarding challenges to the validity of certain Treasury Regulations promulgated under Internal Revenue Code (Code) Section 170. In that case, the Eighth Circuit held for the taxpayer in part and the government in part and remanded to the district court to further develop the record and address certain issues.

The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) recently announced in an Action on Decision (AOD) that it will not acquiesce in the Eighth Circuit’s holding, which invalidated Treas. Reg. § 1.170A-9(c)(1)’s requirement that the primary function of an education organization described in Code Section 170(b)(1)(A)(ii) must be the presentation of formal instruction. This means that in all cases not appealable to the Eighth Circuit, the IRS will not follow this holding and will continue to litigate the issue.

The IRS’s policy is to announce at an early date whether it will follow the holdings in certain cases, and it does so by making an announcement in an AOD. A nonacquiescence is not binding on courts or the taxpayers but merely signals the IRS’s position that it disagrees with a court decision. (Sometimes the IRS will acquiesce in a decision.) Given that an AOD is published in the Internal Revenue Bulletin, it could be argued that the IRS’s action constitutes published guidance taxpayers can rely on. The IRS’s list of AODs, with links to each action, can be found here.




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