Washington (Aug. 30, 2004) – The American Institute of CPAs has called on the Internal Revenue Service to ease the problem created by a series of recent regs and guidance that the AICPA said will create a hardship for small and middle-market taxpayers and accounting firms seeking to comply with certain accounting method change requirements for the treatment of intangibles.
The guidance, including final regs under Section 1.263(a)-4 and Rev. Proc. 2004-23, would require practitioners to “draft a new document, obtain a signature from a client that they would not otherwise be in contact with until next filing season, mail the document with the requisite attachments, and remember to make specific attachments to the return filed the next year,” said the AICPA.
The problem arose because Rev. Proc. 2004-23 was issued on March 24, 2004, after the due date for a calendar-year corporation. Many small and middle-market taxpayers received the guidance after they had already filed their returns.
The AICPA offered its own solution, plus two alternatives, in the belief that “action on one of these alternatives will greatly reduce the compliance burden on small taxpayers and the practitioners who provide tax services to them while still accomplishing the service’s objective of compliance with the final regulations.”
-- WebCPA staff
