In the blogs: Back to the grind

What to do next month; White House returns; taxing AI; and other highlights from our favorite tax bloggers.

Back to the grind

• Taxing Subjects (https://www.drakesoftware.com/blog): A rundown of another kind of busy season, lately: IRS disaster-related filing relief.
• Vertex (https://www.vertexinc.com/resources/resource-library/filter/field_asset_type/blog?page=0): What to remind them about managing the complexities of occupancy tax.
• The Rosenberg Associates (https://rosenbergassoc.com/blog/): Here to Stay Dept.: How to get the most out of remote-work arrangements.
• Keller Advisors (https://ritakeller.com/wordpress/): Remote work gripes, preferential perks, who gets paid more and who leaves early: Client stuff is over for a bit; it's back to people issues.
• Taxable Talk (http://www.taxabletalk.com/): In the ongoing saga of a client and his 2020 refund, a callback from the Taxpayer Advocate Office proved invaluable.
• Turbotax (https://blog.turbotax.intuit.com: What professional drivers can write off (hint: not parking tickets).
• Taxjar (https://www.taxjar.com/resources/blog): May's sales tax due dates.
• University of Illinois Tax School Blog (https://taxschool.illinois.edu/blog/): Both Sec. 179 and bonus depreciation allow deducting the cost of newly acquired property the year it's put the property into service. For assets placed in service in 2023, Sec. 179 allows up to 100% of the cost as a current-year deduction, while bonus depreciation only includes 80% of the cost of the property. Deductions for certain kinds of leased property are restricted under Sec. 179 but not bonus depreciation. A further look at how the two compare.
• TaxPro Center (https://accountants.intuit.com/taxprocenter/): May's key compliance dates and preparers' to-dos.
• Taxbuzz (https://www.taxbuzz.com/blog): They don't want to hear the word, but they will thank you: What to remind them about preparing for an audit.
• Peisner Johnson (https://peisnerjohnson.com/blog/): When is sales tax deductible?
• Current Federal Tax Developments (https://www.currentfederaltaxdevelopments.com/): A look at Notice 2024-35 saying that penalties will not be imposed on taxpayers who fail to take the RMDs from most IRAs and defined contribution plans inherited from decedents who died post-2019.
• Meyers Brothers Kalicka (https://www.mbkcpa.com/insights): Cost allocation can be a cumbersome task for your nonprofit clients, but the process is critical and it's worth reviewing cost allocation practices regularly. Some common allocation practices and how to examine them.
• TaxConnex (https://www.taxconnex.com/blog-): Top sales tax questions for foreign businesses selling into the U.S.
• AICPA & CIMA Insights (https://www.aicpa-cima.com/blog): Last year, sustainability standards were on the horizon. Now they have arrived.

Name games

• Tax Foundation (https://taxfoundation.org/blog): What USC star quarterback Caleb Williams faces for state income taxes depending on which NFL club drafts him.
• Don't Mess with Taxes (http://dontmesswithtaxes.typepad.com/): The 2023 tax year returns of the Bidens and Harris/Emhoff are out. Highlights of the Bidens' 29 pages and the 40-page filing by Harris and Emhoff.
• Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy (https://itep.org/category/blog/): How Intuit might be using feminism to distract from its own troubles. ("There are proven ways to create a tax code that works for women and Intuit is not the one we should trust to describe them.")
• Virginia – U.S. Tax Talk (https://us-tax.org/about-this-us-tax-blog/): Raju J. Mukhi v. Commissioner of Internal Revenue has brought into focus the principle of stare decisis and its implications for tax law: The Tax Court rejected the IRS assessment of penalties under Sec. 6038(b), for failure to file Form 5471.
• Marcum (https://www.marcumllp.com/insights): The staff of the Securities and Exchange Commission's Division of Investment Management has issued a new directive concerning the reporting of foreign currency holdings by ETFs. (Turns out some ETFs describe their holdings of foreign currency positions simply as "cash" in their daily portfolio holdings disclosure on their websites.)
• Canopy (https://www.canopytax.com/blog): Top CRM systems for accounting firms this year.

Questions, class?

• Avalara (https://www.avalara.com/blog/en/north-america.html): Hawaii has some of the highest median home prices and rents in the country and a persistent housing crisis. Could tax incentives geared toward turning the state's short-term rentals into long-term housing increase housing stock and decrease rents for Hawaiians?
• National Association of Tax Professionals (https://blog.natptax.com/): This week's "You Make the Call" looks at Lina, who filed a 990 by May 15, 2024, the due date for Alley Cats Rescue, a tax-exempt organization filing on a calendar year basis. Shortly after, the 990 was returned to her along with IRS Letter 2694C indicating there was information missing from her submission. She immediately called the IRS and found out that when information is missing from the form or schedules omitted, the return is sent back to the filing organization and considered "not timely filed." When she reviewed her submission, she noticed that she did not include Schedule O (Form 990), "Supplemental Information to Form 990 or 990-EZ." Was Lina required to file Schedule O with the 990?
• Tax Vox (https://www.taxpolicycenter.org/taxvox): Is the world "zero-sum," where resources are limited and one's gain is another's loss? Or are resources plentiful and we all can benefit from one another's success? The answer says a lot about how you see taxes (as well as other policy choices). But new research suggests that the way people think about these questions and their links to policy preferences are more complicated than they may first seem.
• TaxProf Blog (http://taxprof.typepad.com/taxprof_blog/): Can AI be taxed separate from its controllers?