Voices

In the blogs: Spotting Bozos

Audits down but taxpayers First; the TCJA and the SE; nexus map; and other highlights from our favorite tax bloggers.

Spotting Bozos

  • Backtaxeshelp (http://www.backtaxeshelp.com/tax-blog/): Implications and analysis of the recent FY drop in IRS enforcement actions, which include tax levies, liens and seizures. Any coincidence that the number of new delinquent taxpayer accounts increased 614,000, with an increase in year-end taxpayer delinquency investigations of 75,000?
  • National Taxpayer Advocate (https://taxpayeradvocate.irs.gov/about/nta-blog): Pony Express Dept.: As the IRS steers taxpayers toward self-help digital tools, the “statutory mailbox rule” must enter the 21st century. Currently, the rule does not apply to the e-transmission of many time-sensitive documents and payments to the IRS — indeed “a document or payment is deemed to be filed or paid on the date of the postmark stamped on the envelope.”
  • Rubin on Tax (http://rubinontax.floridatax.com): Highlights of recent IRS guidance on some of the provisions of the revised limitation and new regulations regarding the interest stripping rules.
  • Procedurally Taxing (http://procedurallytaxing.com): A look at the draft of the bipartisan “The Taxpayer First Act” (“It’s nice to see that tax procedure can bring the parties together…”), including its short turnaround time for comments. What one class in tax studies drafted by way of its own comments.

Truths and falsehoods

  • Dinesen Tax Times (http://dinesentax.com/blog): Breaking up can certainly be hard to do, but what happens when the client’s ex won’t ink the 8332? The ongoing nag of who can claim the kids as dependents in the wake of a divorce.
  • Liberty Tax (https://www.libertytax.com/tax-lounge/): Interesting true or false for your clients regarding 2018 and new tax rates. A sample: “True or False: The lowest tax bracket for 2018 is the same as 2017: 10 percent?”
  • H&R Block https://www.hrblock.com/tax-center/): What do the new standard deduction and removal of exemptions mean to Mr. and Mrs. America and all the clients at sea? As usual, “depends on their specific tax situation.”
  • Intuit ProConnect (https://taxprocenter.proconnect.intuit.com): What to tell your self-employed clients about reform and “some generous tax benefits for this segment of the workforce.”
  • TurboTax (https://blog.turbotax.intuit.com): All well and good for the SE and the TCJA, but what if your self-employed clients didn’t track their expenses for the year?
  • Tax Girl (http://blogs.forbes.com/kellyphillipserb): In the annual alphabet countdown “Taxes From A to Z,” V comes in with Voluntary Bankruptcy. The A point? “Often, debtors believe that declaring bankruptcy will eliminate all existing debts, including all outstanding tax debts. This is not true.”

Notes from all over

  • Taxjar (http://blog.taxjar.com/): Judicial rulings in various states mean that some states are allowed to declare that sellers are on the hook for sales tax if they have click-through nexus, while others are not. Which states require sales tax based on click-through nexus?
  • AG Tax (http://agtax.ca/tax-tips-and-articles): A few points that U.S. citizens residing in Canada and other foreign countries should keep in mind while filing their U.S. return.
  • Tax Foundation (https://taxfoundation.org/blog): In Illinois, pending legislation would repeal the state constitution’s uniformity clause and adopt a graduated-rate income tax with a top rate higher than the current rate. This only caps that “for small businesses in Illinois, the past few years have inspired little confidence.”

Clouds and clowns

  • SageNext (https://www.thesagenext.com/blog): How to “Overcome 10 Biggest Challenges of Cloud Migration,” especially given that “despite the convenience and affordability, the actual migration process presents a number of difficulties.”
  • Solutions for CPA Firm Leaders (http://ritakeller.com/blog/): How every firm can use an internal management team and definitely not from the common Five Dysfunctions of a Team.
  • Taxable Talk (http://www.taxabletalk.com/): What Bozo Tax Tip list can be compete without a Bozo Accountant? Some signs your colleagues might not be as bright (or legit) as appearances suggest.
  • Federal Tax Crimes (http://federaltaxcrimes.blogspot.com/): In United States v. Garrity, a government suit to reduce the willful FBAR penalty to judgment, the District Court held that the government’s burden of proof on the willful penalty is preponderance of the evidence, among other findings.
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