In the blogs: Start to finish

Tax Court judges; like-kind slip-ups; estate planning and digital assets; and other highlights from our favorite tax bloggers.

Start to finish

• Eide Bailly (https://www.eidebailly.com/taxblog): How Congress is behaving like a lazy teenager in the face of monumental tax decisions.
• Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy (https://itep.org/category/blog/): Rampant uncertainty this year extends beyond the national economy and federal policy. Many state legislatures are declaring their tax and budget debates finished and just getting started, sometimes in the same breath.
• The Wandering Tax Pro (http://wanderingtaxpro.blogspot.com/) Fifty years of professionally filing can be yours in "The Joy of Preparing Taxes."

Benchmarks

• TaxProf Blog (http://taxprof.typepad.com/taxprof_blog/): Favorite opening of the week: "Tax practice is like comedy. Timing is critical." Of all the corners citizens must round squarely when interacting with government, the timing requirements in the Internal Revenue Code contain some of the squarest and sharpest. Did the Supreme Court's decision in Boechler v. Commissioner sand down some of those corners?
• HBK (https://hbkcpa.com/insights/): The Tax Court's recent decision in Kaleb J. Pierce v. Commissioner provides guidance for valuing closely held business interests in the context of gift tax planning — and IRS scrutiny.
• Taxnotes (https://www.taxnotes.com/procedurally-taxing): To remedy an "asymmetric information gap," this series provides a guide to each Tax Court judge. First is Judge Patrick J. Urda, and reader input is sought for future profiles. No pejorative comments, please, but there is great interest in comments about specific practices.

In action

• Sikich (https://www.sikich.com/insights/): How to help nonprofit clients strengthen internal controls, including such common weaknesses as bad financial reporting.
• Tax Foundation (https://taxfoundation.org/blog): How a tax preference originally designed to level the playing field now has the opposite effect in recent acquisitions of banks by credit unions.
• The National Association of Tax Professionals (https://blog.natptax.com/): Who can claim a child as a dependent isn't always straightforward, particularly when parents are unmarried, separated or divorced. Recent case studies on dependency claims show "IRS rules in action."
• The Tax Times (https://www.thetaxtimes.com): Turns out that, so far anyway, the IRS is doing a pretty good job targeting rich non-filers.
• CLA (https://www.claconnect.com/en/resources?pageNum=0): What to remind them about ticking the boxes in like-kind exchanges.
• Mauled Again (https://mauledagain.blogspot.com/): So who's responsible for teaching personal finance, anyway?
• Avalara (https://www.avalara.com/blog/en/north-america.html): Handy state-by-state guide to the taxability of digital products.
• Parametric (https://www.parametricportfolio.com/blog): Maximizing after-tax return is a key goal of direct indexing, but it may be a pyrrhic victory to let risk management suffer in pursuit of realized losses.
• Taxbuzz (https://www.taxbuzz.com/blog): What to remind clients, especially those who are seeking mortgages, about CPA letters.
• Meyers Brothers Kalicka (https://www.mbkcpa.com/insights): Never assume they know the trickiness of estimated taxes and withholding.

Three questions

• Wiss (https://wiss.com/insights/read/): Estate planning doesn't always involve cash, real estate or that glittering necklace. What to consider when the bequeathed includes digital assets?
• TaxConnex (https://www.taxconnex.com/blog-): There's a big new letter for remote seller clients: Q-commerce. How does the sales tax situation differ from that Q's better-known "E" cousin?
• Berkowitz Pollack Brant (https://www.bpbcpa.com/articles-press-releases/): When does the Foreign Investment in Real Property Tax Act apply to real estate transactions?