Notices finally arriving; big breaks for Oprah and Walmart; the snares of working remotely; and other highlights from our favorite tax bloggers.
What a relief
- Tax Warrior Chronicles (
https://www.taxwarriors.com/blog ): Favorite opening of the week: “We are starting to compare the Paycheck Protection Program to extra-innings in the longest baseball game ever recorded. It is now inning 19, two full games have been played, the only fans in the stands are the super-fans (nerdy tax advisors and weary borrowers), and the Treasury just hit a 2-out single with nobody on base.” - National Taxpayer Advocate (
https://taxpayeradvocate.irs.gov/about/nta-blog ): During the shutdown, the IRS generated more than 20 million notices that never saw a mailbox (including ours, as it turns out). As a result, the notices’ deadlines have passed (some by several months) and some of the notices require taxpayers to respond by deadlines that also have passed. There is a silver lining, tell your affected and probably hair-pulling clients: Notice 1052-A, enclosed. - Tax Girl (
https://www.forbes.com/sites/kellyphillipserb/ ): Additional data from PPP loans is headed to the public eye. Namely, the names of businesses that received loans of $150,000 or more, as well as business addresses, business types, demographic data, jobs supported by the business and the NAICS number. - Tax Vox (
https://www.taxpolicycenter.org/taxvox) : Should Congress manipulate the timing of business tax benefits to support firms in the midst of the COVID-19 economic slump? And if so, how? - Sikich (
https://www.sikich.com/insights/ ): Under the CARES Act, qualified individuals can receive favorable tax treatment for distributions from eligible retirement plans as long as the distributions were taken as a relief measure relating to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. A look at the latest guidance. - Taxing Subjects (
https://www.drakesoftware.com/blog ): Concerning the above, the guidance expands the categories of individuals eligible for these kinds of distributions and loans and gives examples of tax treatment. - Avalara (
https://www.avalara.com/us/en/blog.html ): A COVID-19 tax relief roundup, covering sales tax, state-specific taxes and a host of other topics. - Don’t Mess with Taxes (
http://dontmesswithtaxes.typepad.com/ ): Shipment methods the IRS would like some of us to use to send stimulus checks back, please.
Ever popular
- EideBailly (
https://www.eidebailly.com/taxblog ): Applicable federal rates for July. - Rubin on Tax (
http://rubinontax.floridatax.com ): How formula clauses, used when property with uncertain value is transferred by gift or sale, received a boost in Wandry v. Commissioner. - Procedurally Taxing (
https://procedurallytaxing.com ): Guest blogger Rochelle Hodes, principal at Crowe LLP, provides a timely discussion of “the ever-popular” IRC 6751(b) and another way it may help your client when the IRS seeks to penalize. - Mauled Again (
http://mauledagain.blogspot.com/ ): Another recent Tax Court case, Strashny v. Comr., is a useful example of why installment agreements are designed to help taxpayers who are in difficult financial situations (and not those who aren’t, especially when it comes to cryptocurrency). - The Income Tax School (
http://www.theincometaxschool.com/blog/ ): New emergency, same old scummy motivations: the latest on COVID-19 scams, including those related to Economic Impact Payments and the PPP. - Bloomberg Tax (
https://pro.bloombergtax.com/news-insights/ ): How Oprah and Walmart scored tax breaks on films that others made. - Taxable Talk (
http://www.taxabletalk.com/ ): How a couple of lawyers filed too late with the Tax Court on behalf of two marijuana dispensaries.
Practice questions
- Sagenext (
https://www.thesagenext.com/blog ): What is cloud hosting and how can you screw it up? - Solutions For CPA Firm Leaders (
http://ritakeller.com/blog/ ): Why do we call them “retired partners” if they’re going to continue to work? Why pay them “retirement” payments and pay them a salary to keep working? A look at the structure of a contract that could keep everyone happy in this oddly prevalent situation. - Taxbuzz (
https://www.taxbuzz.com/blog ): Even as companies continue to reopen their doors, some are moving to have their employees work remotely permanently. Here’s what these employees will need to know about the tax implications — including potential tax liability in multiple jurisdictions. - Boyum & Barenscheer (
https://myboyum.com/blog/ ): Family businesses make up most of companies in the U.S. and produce nearly two-thirds of the country’s GDP. They also potentially face higher fraud risk. - Taxjar (
http://blog.taxjar.com/ ): An overview of the new Texas marketplace facilitator law.
