Voices

In the blogs: Matters of reality

AMT question; voluntary use-tax; summer and taxes; and other highlights from our favorite tax bloggers.

Matters of reality

  • National Taxpayer Advocate (https://taxpayeradvocate.irs.gov/about/nta-blog): When the IRS removed the two-year period for requesting equitable innocent spouse relief and granted relief more frequently, what happened to the flood of claims?
  • Federal Tax Crimes (http://federaltaxcrimes.blogspot.com/): In United States v. Garrity, a government suit to obtain judgment on an FBAR willful penalty, the court granted the government's motion in limine to preclude the testimony of the defense’s expert witness.
  • The Wandering Tax Pro (http://wanderingtaxpro.blogspot.com/): The U.S. Tax Code appears in parts to want to be a textbook inequality: some specific taxpayers burdened, some industries blessed with loopholes. Among the items that “disproportionately distort economic reality,” where does the deduction for depreciation of real property and capital improvements fall?
  • Rubin on Tax (http://rubinontax.floridatax.com): How an income beneficiary of a trust and the trust remaindermen were unable to successfully commute and terminate a trust.
  • John R. Dundon II EA (https://www.johnrdundon.com): It matters in determining if the accuracy penalty applies when negotiating with the IRS. A look at the definitions and guidance.

Just passin’ through

  • Tax Foundation (https://taxfoundation.org/blog): Here’s an estimation for our times: “Automobile Tariffs Would Offset Half the TCJA Gains for Low-income Households.” New tariffs on automobiles would reduce after-tax incomes for all taxpayers by 0.47 percent in 2018, while making the distribution of the tax burden less progressive.
  • Houston Tax Blog (http://www.irstaxtrouble.com/category/tax-blog/): The TCJA mandates that employees are no longer able to deduct unreimbursed expenses incurred as an employee. Given this change, employers and their workers may need to re-evaluate their relationship. Fiedziuszkok v. Commissioner provides an opportunity to consider these rules.
  • TaxProf Blog (http://taxprof.typepad.com/taxprof_blog/): A look at the Alternative Minimum Tax before and after reform raises the question: Did the TCJA effectively eliminate the unpopular tax?
  • Tax Vox (http://www.taxpolicycenter.org/taxvox): The most problematic provision of the TCJA may be its deduction for qualified business income of owners of pass-throughs. “If Congress really wants to tax most C corporations and other businesses at roughly the same rate, there are ways to do it without creating such a mess.” One relatively simple solution … .

Nexus up

  • Bloomberg BNA (https://www.bna.com/news/#!topic=tax&type=blogpost&page=1): Iowa has updated its conformity to the 2017 federal tax act for taxpayers in the state for tax years beginning in 2019. Although the sweeping bill also contains systematic changes to Iowa’s sales and use tax regime as well many other changes for Iowa individual taxpayers, of equal importance are the key changes that impact corporate taxpayers.
  • Boyum and Barenscheer (https://myboyum.com/blog/): One of the biggest items facing veto in the Minnesota legislature is the state tax bill that lines up state taxes with the new federal law so that at least 800,000 Minnesotans don’t end up paying more.
  • Avalara (https://www1.avalara.com/us/en/blog.html): Connecticut is the latest state to broaden its sales tax laws in order to capture more revenue from remote sales.
  • Taxjar (http://blog.taxjar.com/): June sales tax due dates, state by state.
  • Mauled Again (http://mauledagain.blogspot.com/): Moving beyond nexus and into plans for voluntary use-tax collection: a look at the ongoing discussions.

Self abuse

  • TaxBuzz (https://www.taxbuzz.com/blog): Marching in the front of the band for those befuddled by reform: the self-employed. Though the 20 percent deduction would seem to offer self-employment relief for some, many out there on their own still have bigger questions than ever. What to tell them.
  • Turbotax (https://blog.turbotax.intuit.com): And summer is when the youngest SEs — and plenty of other young adults with first jobs and first withholdings — ask the most questions. Lesson 1: “All income must be reported.”
  • Don’t Mess With Taxes (http://dontmesswithtaxes.typepad.com/): There are tax connections to just about everything — and of course that includes summer. Some of the tax tasks that really should be top of clients’ minds this month.
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