IRS PLANS GUIDANCE ON EMPLOYER-PROVIDED MEALS
Washington, D.C. -- The Internal Revenue Service and the Treasury Department have released their Priority Guidance Plan for 2014 to 2015, including the treatment of employer-provided meals.
Some observers are concerned that the IRS plans to tax the free meals that technology companies such as Google, Facebook and Twitter provide to employees in their cafeterias, according to The Wall Street Journal, considering them a taxable fringe benefit. The Priority Guidance Plan, however, merely said they would provide "guidance ... regarding employer-provided meals."
The IRS and Treasury also said they plan to issue further guidance on the Supreme Court's decision in the case of United States v. Windsor, which determined that Section 3 of the Defense of Marriage Act is unconstitutional, along with regulations under the Affordable Care Act regarding the minimum value of eligible employer-sponsored coverage and other provisions relating to the health insurance premium tax credit.
IRS TO PROCESS COMPLAINTS AGAINST PREPARERS FASTER
Washington, D.C. -- The Internal Revenue Service intends to process complaints against tax preparers from their clients in a more timely way, in response to a new government report that found it had begun work on only about half the complaints it received since October 2012.
The report, from the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration, reviewed 8,354 complaints against tax preparers received by the IRS between Oct. 1, 2012, and Sept. 11, 2013, and identified 3,953 (or 47 percent) for which work on the complaints had yet to be initiated.
As part of its oversight responsibilities, the IRS has developed processes and procedures through which taxpayers can file a complaint with the IRS. However, those procedures do not ensure that taxpayer complaints are accurately and consistently processed, TIGTA noted. In addition, processes have not been established to effectively track the complaint referrals to IRS business functions.
