In the blogs: Nothing's perfect

Mapping the talent hunt; what taxpayers don't know; new blog on the block; and other highlights from our favorite tax bloggers.

Nothing's perfect

• Taxpayer Advocate Service (https://www.taxpayeradvocate.irs.gov/taxnews-information/blogs-nta/): More victims than perhaps previously thought might qualify for a theft-loss deduction, but work remains to help all taxpayers who get scammed.
• Tax Vox (https://www.taxpolicycenter.org/taxvox): A new tax hike on high-income taxpayers might seem politically implausible even as calls for one continue. Three analyses explore ways to tax either capital gains or wealth.
• Withum (https://www.withum.com/resources/): Guruhood isn't always a breeze: tax tips for social media influencers.
• Taxing Subjects (https://www.drakesoftware.com/blog): What to remember (or try for the first time) when marketing your practice, including demographics, branding, an SEO-friendly website, sticky content and more.
• HBK (https://hbkcpa.com/insights/): Reacting is usually more expensive than planning. Steps, obstacles and benchmarks to meet talent and workforce needs.
• Yeo & Yeo (https://www.yeoandyeo.com/resources): Six best-practice reminders for practices' and client companies' onboarding.
• CLA (https://www.claconnect.com/en/resources?pageNum=0): Minnesota bats around a sales tax on professional services.
• Meyers Brothers Kalicka (https://www.mbkcpa.com/insights): An update to watch: new audit and review thresholds for nonprofits in Massachusetts.
• Tax Foundation (https://taxfoundation.org/blog): North Carolina keeps rising in the Tax Foundation's State Tax Competitiveness Index. One reason could be the state's tax reduction triggers, admittedly "a structured but imperfect mechanism."

Validation

• Don't Mess with Taxes (http://dontmesswithtaxes.typepad.com/): A recent poll shows "the distressing discovery" that more than 61% of U.S. taxpayers did not know, or were not sure of, basic tax concepts related to filing income taxes, and more than half are unfamiliar with how tax brackets work.
• U of I Tax School (https://taxschool.illinois.edu/blog/): What to remind them about the NIIT, as well as self-employment and the additional 1401 tax.
• Wolters Kluwer (https://www.wolterskluwer.com/en/solutions/tax-accounting-us/industry-news): Legislation (or lack thereof) plus other aspects of the season just passed.
• The National Association of Tax Professionals (https://blog.natptax.com/): What to remind them (and yourself) about the rights and responsibilities of powers of attorney.
• TaxProf Blog (http://taxprof.typepad.com/taxprof_blog/): "Taxation, Lactation, and Validation: The Symbolic Power of Tax Law to Legitimize Breast Milk Expression."
• Current Federal Tax Developments (https://www.currentfederaltaxdevelopments.com/): A look at IRS Program Manager Technical Advice on the validity of Employee Retention Credit claims by third-party payers on aggregate employment returns or claims for refund when the Schedule R (Form 941) is missing.

Maintaining momentum

• Boyum & Barenscheer (https://www.myboyum.com/blog/): What helpful suggestions can nonprofit clients mine from their own audit reports?
• Palm Beach Financial and Accounting Services (https://www.pbafs.com/blog): Half a dozen smart ways for young-adult clients to use their refunds.
• Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy (https://itep.org/category/blog/): The State of Washington came into the year with strong momentum — the Capital Gains Excise Tax on the state's highest-income households and the new Working Families Tax Credit, for example. But lawmakers in Olympia now face a $16 billion shortfall, impending federal funding uncertainty and a new governor calling for billions in budget cuts.

New to us

• Trout CPA (https://www.troutcpa.com/blog): This Pennsylvania firm offers an array of services in various industries (including agriculture, funeral homes and auto dealerships, among many others) and a fine blog. Recent topics include recent IRS revisions to the 6765 and depreciation recapture on real estate sales. Welcome!