Jordan's Revenge; generative AI; faulty assumptions; and other highlights from our favorite tax bloggers.
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The royal treatment
Taxbuzz : King Charles III has become the first reigning British monarch to publicly disclose his personal tax bill, marking a historic shift toward greater financial transparency within the British royal family. Buckingham Palace announced that the King voluntarily paid £12.9 million (approximately U.S. $17.5 million) in income and capital gains taxes during the 2024-25 tax year. The disclosure also revealed that he has paid more than £30 million (about U.S. $40.5 million) in taxes since ascending to the throne in 2022, placing him among the UK's largest taxpayers. Unlike most taxpayers, however, King Charles is not legally required to pay many of these taxes.Eide Bailly : In 1776, the American experiment officially began, but its origins trace back even further, to a familiar dispute over taxes. Long before 1040s and compliance calendars, arguments about who could tax, what could be taxed and how far governments could reach helped spark a revolution. Two hundred and fifty years later, those questions remain at the heart of state and local tax policy. Who ever said taxes are boring?Intuit Turbotax : Even though we're in the middle of the FIFA World Cup, the tax that applies to athletes and professional support staff working across states or countries actually started in the world of basketball many years ago. After the Chicago Bulls won the 1991 NBA Championship, the State of Illinois introduced a tax targeting visiting players who earned income while competing there. California, where several of those games had been played, retaliated with a tax of its own. The practice spread, and the informal name stuck: the jock tax. (It's also called Jordan's Revenge.)Tax Foundation : In response to the Strait of Hormuz crisis, Sens. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., Ron Wyden, D-Oregon, and Michael Bennet, D-Colorado, have introduced the Taxing Buybacks from Big Oil Windfalls Act. Not to be confused with the Big Oil Windfall Profits Tax of Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, D-Rhode Island, which would introduce a 50% excise tax on the gap between the quarterly average crude oil price and the average crude oil price in 2025, this proposal (also cosponsored by Sen. Whitehouse) would raise the stock buyback excise tax from 1% to 25% for large oil and gas companies. While they are different proposals, the blog suggests they rely on some similar, faulty assumptions.Massey and Company : Curious if Venmo, Zelle, Cash App, PayPal and other payment apps must report a person's personal transactions to the IRS? The short answer is no, payment apps on phones do not report personal payments. However, the scenario for payment apps changes when it comes to business payments.
Around the corner
Berkowitz Pollack Brant : The IRS introduced a new process for taxpayers to request more time to review, respond to and resolve disallowed Employee Retention Credit claims beyond the existing two-year window, including the option to file a refund suit. If the IRS disallows a claim, it notifies taxpayers via Letters 105C or 106C and gives them two years from the date of the letter to resolve the claim administratively or file a refund lawsuit if they disagree with the decision. For many taxpayers, that statutory deadline is around the corner.National Taxpayer Advocate : Why July 10, 2026, matters: In most cases, taxpayers must file a claim for credit or refund within the later of three years from the date they filed the return, or two years from the date they paid the tax, penalty or interest. If, under the reasoning of Kwong, affected returns or payments are treated as due on July 10, 2023, then July 10, 2026, is a critical deadline for many refund or protective claims.Withum : IRS Chief Tax Compliance Officer Jarod Koopman recently indicated that the IRS is considering creating a portal, in light of Kwong v. United States, to help taxpayers who may be entitled to refunds of COVID-era interest and penalties submit and track their refund claims. The announcement comes as the IRS continues to defend its interpretation of IRC Sec. 7508A(d) in the government's appeal of the Kwong decision.Wolters Kluwer : There was a lot of speculation about what the IRS would say when it finally weighed in on generative AI in tax practice. Would it crack down? Slow adoption? Introduce a new compliance regime? The answer, as it turns out, is none of the above
Stay on the right side
Gordon Law : Form 8858 is an IRS information return required for U.S. persons who own a foreign disregarded entity or operate a foreign branch. The legal stakes are steep, as failing to file can trigger a $10,000 penalty per entity and per year — and the financial consequences only escalate from there. Here's what you need to know to stay on the right side of the IRS.Mauled Again : The DOJ announced the sentencing of a taxpayer who pleaded guilty to tax evasion by purchasing real property, vehicles and cashier's checks in the name of a business used to conceal the property's beneficial ownership and source. The total amount of taxes, interest and penalties owed to the U.S. Treasury was $2,467,523.44. The taxpayer was sentenced to 24 months in prison, followed by 36 months of supervised release, and was also ordered to pay $2,467,523.44 in restitution. The taxpayer pleaded guilty on April 2 of this year. The sentencing took place this month.AICPA & CIMA : For those who sat for the CPA exam before 2004, it probably involved a test spanning two days, a pencil and a paper booklet, and only a few chances to sit each year. A big shift occurred when the exam became computerized; candidates could schedule each of the four parts on their own timeline, and task-based simulations of real-world scenarios took on a larger role. Today's candidates are living through another big shift.
IRS tracking number
Sagenext : A client calls on a Thursday afternoon: the IRS sent a notice, they can't find their original return, and they want to know if their amended return ever landed. There's just two minutes before the next appointment. Knowing exactly where to look for an IRS tracking number is the difference between a confident two-sentence answer and an awkward callback. This blog covers every major IRS tracking number type, where each one lives and the fastest path to useful information.U of I Tax School Blog : The USDA's Commodity Credit Corporation has published a highly anticipated final rule effective June 2. The rule incorporates the payment-limit and eligibility modifications enacted under the One Big Beautiful Bill Act into the federal regulations at 7 CFR Part 1400. For agricultural producers operating through entity structures, this rule represents a monumental shift in how payment limitations are calculated and how "actively engaged in farming" determinations are made.National Association of Tax Professionals : Tax professionals spend a lot of time interpreting guidance that falls somewhere between a new law and a final rule. One of the most common examples is proposed regulations. They appear regularly after Congress passes tax legislation, and they often provide the first detailed explanation of how the Treasury Department and IRS believe a law should work. But proposed regulations raise an important question: How much weight should practitioners actually give them? The answer is more nuanced than many practitioners may assume.
