In the blogs: SALT in the wound

China and children; memories of McCain; building a practice’s brand; and other highlights from our favorite tax bloggers.

SALT in the wound

• Tax Foundation (https://taxfoundation.org/blog): A look at how the “much-hyped” strategies some states pursued to help high-income taxpayers avoid the SALT cap evaporated in the harsh light of the IRS.
• Taxable Talk (http://www.taxabletalk.com/): To put the IRS position another way, consult Twisted Sister.
• Mauled Again (http://mauledagain.blogspot.com/): Sometimes taxes are used to inspire good behavior and sometimes to discourage supposedly bad behavior. After your next fight with your teenager, you can decide which China’s new “no child tax” falls under.
• Don’t Mess With Taxes (http://dontmesswithtaxes.typepad.com/): What’s China thinking? Seems if you restrict family size for 40 years you one day wind up with an aging society and a shrinking young population — unhealthy for any economy.
• Tax Vox (http://www.taxpolicycenter.org/taxvox): The late John McCain had an impact on American life and politics that both sides of the aisle may appreciate more as time goes on. In 2000, for instance, his fiscally responsible tax plan turned heads in both parties.
• TaxProf Blog (http://taxprof.typepad.com/taxprof_blog/): A recent presentation contends that reform, for all its criticism on both sides, did create international corporate tax provisions that move the U.S. closer to the framework used by other nations.
• Federal Tax Crimes (http://federaltaxcrimes.blogspot.com/): White-collar crime lawyers know that the premier prosecutors are in the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of N.Y., the office that investigated and prosecuted Michael Cohen. A look at just how formidable the district is when it comes to white-collar crooks.

Just passing through

• John R. Dundon II EA (https://www.johnrdundon.com): So just what is a “specified service trade or business” for the purposes of Section 199A? Has the IRS finally made that a little clearer?
• Avalara (https://www.avalara.com/us/en/blog.html): Texas was one of the first states to bring the online sales tax debate to the public forum. It’s blazing trails more cautiously in the wake of Wayfair but the general direction seems familiar.
• Wolters Kluwer (http://news.cchgroup.com/): A look at FASB’s ASU 2018-13, which modifies disclosure requirements on fair value measurements in Topic 820.
• National Taxpayer Advocate (https://taxpayeradvocate.irs.gov/about/nta-blog): Some examples that show how the IRS refusal to provide a stand-alone notice prior to certification harms taxpayers when it comes to delinquent tax debt and passport denial, limitation or revocation.
• Bloomberg BNA (https://www.bna.com/news/#!topic=tax&type=blogpost&page=1): Counting down to the effective date for the new lease accounting standards, a poll of more than 2,170 C-suite and other execs showed that fewer than half of public companies and a third of private are on schedule to implement the new standards by their effective date.

The brand plays on

• Solutions For CPA Firm Leaders (http://ritakeller.com/blog/): A lot of discussion topics go into good M&A: culture, workflow, staff. Don’t forget technology, advised a recent Boomer Technology Circles Summit panel.
• Boyum Barenscheer (https://myboyum.com/blog/): What to remind them about new M&E expenses’ deductibility under the reform.
• Dinesen Tax Times (http://dinesentax.com/blog): What does happen to clients who want a second opinion? How do they react when Preparer Two tells them the same thing Preparer One told them? An experience from last season involving, somewhat surprisingly, a long-time client.
• Intuit Proconnect (http://taxprocenter.proconnect.intuit.com/): How cloud-based prep software can help you get ahead of reform for next season.
• The Income Tax School (http://www.theincometaxschool.com/blog/): Every company needs a brand identity, how your audience perceives a business. Your brand identity is essentially the face of your firm. What your brand should encompass.
• H&R Block (https://www.hrblock.com/tax-center/): Crib notes for education tax benefits, including the increased versatility of 529s, the need to look beyond simple eligibility, and student loan interest deduction.
• Rubin on Tax (http://rubinontax.floridatax.com): Happy Family Dept.: An “interesting” case involves property willed to a fiancée, a marriage and subsequent divorce then (here comes interesting) the death of the husband and his father attempting to have the will construed as if the bride predeceased the groom.