In the blogs: Wasting no time

What to concentrate on; Ready Return rejection; cases dismissed; and other highlights from our favorite tax bloggers.

Wasting no time

• John R. Dundon II EA (http://johnrdundon.com/): The IRS Service Center in Ogden, Utah, was among the first this season to get e-dinged.
• Taxing Subjects (https://www.drakesoftware.com/blog): Mere hours into the season and crooks are already trying to make life miserable. The IRS warns that ID thieves are posing as service agents in a range of scam calls.
• AICPA Insights (https://www.aicpa.org/blog): New season, but same pandemic fallout, IRS service woes and endless talk of potential legislation. Cutting through that noise, here are some of the big-ticket items you need to think about first, from child credits to crypto.
• Avalara (https://www.avalara.com/blog/en/north-america.html): How will the metaverse be taxed?
• Boyum & Barenscheer (https://www.myboyum.com/blog/): Maybe your nonprofit clients have put major purchases and other ambitious initiatives on hold during the pandemic. Here’s why they may not want to wait any longer.
• Henry+Horne (https://www.hhcpa.com/blogs/): What to remind them about why — or why not — to file a 2021 return.

Faster than a speeding backlog

• The Wandering Tax Pro (http://wanderingtaxpro.blogspot.com/): Favorite headline of the week: “Paper is the IRS kryptonite.”
• Mauled Again (http://mauledagain.blogspot.com/: Asks a Yahoo story, another defense of the Ready Return concept, “The IRS already has all your income tax data — so why do Americans still have to file their taxes?” The blogger’s reaction: “You’ve got to be kidding me.”
• Procedurally Taxing (https://procedurallytaxing.com): The National Taxpayer Advocate’s annual report reveals under “Cases Dismissed, Settled, and Tried in the Tax Court, FYs 2012 -2021” that almost 80% of cases settle. A look at the “melt away” of dismissals.
• Bloomberg Tax and Accounting (https://pro.bloombergtax.com/news-insights/): The net result of the major changes to the U.S. individual income tax code over the past two decades is not what you’d expect.

Making cases

• The Tax Times (https://www.thetaxtimes.com): In a FBAR case, how one taxpayer proved that she used her son’s email account to correspond with her attorney and, therefore, privilege continues.
• Federal Tax Crimes (http://federaltaxcrimes.blogspot.com/): In Evdokimow v. United States, the court rejected a request for relief “to vacate, correct, or set aside his federal sentence pursuant to 28 U.S.C. Sec. 2255.” Evdokimow raised several claims related to ineffective assistance of counsel. The blogger focuses on the first claim considered in the opinion, which the district court titles “Correction of Petitioner’s Returns.”
• Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy (https://itep.org/category/blog/): How Build Back Better’s tax provisions would help advance racial equity.
• Tax Foundation (https://taxfoundation.org/blog): While U.S. legislators have aligned some pieces of Build Back Better to the global minimum tax, incentives baked into the U.S. Tax Code would create an opening for foreign jurisdictions to charge higher taxes on U.S. companies.

Getting personal

• Taxbuzz (https://www.taxbuzz.com/blog): What to warn them about when it comes to this year’s potentially disappointing refunds.
• Eide Bailly (https://www.eidebailly.com/taxblog): All the news that fits about facial recognition and taxes.
• Don’t Mess with Taxes (http://dontmesswithtaxes.typepad.com/): What to remind them about the new $600 reporting requirement and personal transactions.
• TaxConnex (https://www.taxconnex.com/blog-): Job market woes continue for clients looking to handle sales tax in-house.
• Current Federal Tax Developments (https://www.currentfederaltaxdevelopments.com/): Schedules K-2 and K-3 will be required to be provided unless partnerships know they won’t be needed — even if partnership has no foreign activities or partners.
• HBK (https://hbkcpa.com/insights/): A look at the tax consequences of investing in U.S. real property as a foreign national or entity.
• Taxjar (https://www.taxjar.com/resources/blog): Four things your clients need to know before they start collecting sales tax.
• Summing It Up (http://blog.freedmaxick.com/summing-it-up): Staff, supplies, PP&E, contracts, taxes and insurance: Here are a few tips to save on all these key areas.