Highlights of some of our favorite tax-related blogs from the past week.
Workin’ on the Highway Fund
Tax Policy : Blastin’ Through the Bedrock Dept.: How Senate approval of the Surface Transportation and Veterans Health Care Choice Improvement Act funds the Highway Trust Fund until late October by moving $8 billion from the general fund. “Lawmakers hope that this temporary patch will give them time to devise a permanent solution to the Highway Trust Fund’s funding issues.” Sounds like a spring pothole.Taxable Talk : How the recently passed Surface Transportation Act, though primarily having nothing to do with tax, will greatly affect entity returns for 2016 and 2016 FBARs.Roth & Co. : A highway bill that scrambles business-return due dates (HR 22) “from what they have been pretty much forever,” aimed at sharpening the timeliness of K-1s “with one bizarre exception.” The lowdown on what’s now due when.Bond Beebe’s It’s Taxing : A look at proposed IRS regs to ax the requirement that a copy of the Sec. 83(b) election be submitted with a return for the year the property is transferred. Also, heading off the end-of-year rush with mid-year tax planning.
Friends indeed
Tax Maven : Feeling lonely? “Why Form 8275 Is a Tax Preparer’s Best Friend” examines how tax penalties ding your practice in many ways and how this form can save “dollars and reputations.”Taxing Subjects: Coming soon to a laptop near you: ACA webinars from the IRS. Subjects and dates of the broadcasts.Solutions For CPA Firm Leaders : Unlike most people, you sort of get paid to think. And here’s a bonus: You can do your best thinking while taking time off. What a great profession!
Up nexus
Mauled Again : Sure, they’re fun at the register, but “Do Sales Tax Holidays Make Sense?” Citing Massachusetts as only the latest example of a state that’s trying to boost retail numbers with this break, this entry contends that “the only way that a sales tax holiday generates increased economic activity is if it causes people to make purchases that they otherwise would not make.” Does this happen? Yay and nay.Taxjar : Whether volunteering or not, out-of-state retailers presumed to have nexus in Tennessee must now collect sales tax. The conditions of such nexus.
How is that fair?
TaxProf Blog : “The IRS Scandal, Day 816” looks at what seem obvious questions should you be audited based on your religion? Your political beliefs? The charities you support? and how our tax system measures up when it comes to exempt organization targeting.Don’t Mess with Taxes : Why did the White House, despite more than 32,000 signatures on the petition, decline to meet with conservative talk-show host and author Neal Boortz about the FairTax plan? “The Administration's response did note that the president’s advisers have talked with the National Economic Council about the tax proposal. The fact is that Mr. Boortz's fair tax plan is actually pretty unfair and inconsistent with those goals for reforming our tax system George W. Bush’s Treasury Department figured this out, too, when they considered and rejected it.’”Tax Analysts : Noteworthy addresses are nothing new to New York, of course, but Albany puts a new twist on the idea by attempting to tax the income of a (presumably) retired non-resident lawyer based on the address on his bar license.Procedurally Taxing : Guest blogger Joni Larson looks at a recent Tax Court order involving the interpretation of Court Rule 147.
Thanks a bunch
Liberty Tax : Just as aches, pains and prescription drugs’ side effects usually come in groups, “How to Bunch Your Medical Expenses to Receive a Tax Deduction” looks at mid-year strategies for clients to add up costs for premiums, doctor visits, co-pays and the like to see if costs near the tipping percentage to itemize.The Wandering Tax Pro : Good Things Last Forever Dept. How IRS phone scams just keep going on and on and on. The service reports that nearly 3,000 victims shelled out more than $14 million to crooks, and here are reminders for your clients about what to watch for.
