News

The tax benefits of private placement variable annuities for wealthy clients are drawing scrutiny and calls for a federal crackdown — but they're not going away anytime soon.

The IRS issued final regulations (T.D. 9997) on Tuesday that finalize the reduction of the fees for the application and renewal of preparer tax identification numbers (PTINs) to an $11 user fee plus an $8.75 third-party contractor fee, for a total annual fee of $19.75. That fee amount has been in place since Oct. 19, 2023.

Although the IRS says it has made great strides in customer service to taxpayers over the past year, "We have a lot more work to do," Commissioner Danny Werfel said Thursday.

The Internal Revenue Service reminds taxpayers that May kicks off the season of disaster preparation with National Wildfire Awareness Month and National Hurricane Preparedness Week, May 5-11.

In Rev. Proc. 2024-23, the IRS on Tuesday provided a comprehensive, updated list of changes in tax accounting methods to which the automatic change procedures in Rev. Proc. 2015-13, as subsequently modified, apply.

Every tax season brings its own craziness — in no small part because of clients' notions about taxes.

The IRS, in its release of the draft of the Form 1099-DA for brokers to report digital asset transactions, includes the broad definition of "broker" used in proposed regulations that drew industry ire when issued in 2023.

The IRS's first attempts to rein in abuse by "ghost employers" — those who pay their workers but do not pay employment tax and federal payroll income tax withholding — had some success, and the Service should ramp up its pursuit, the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration (TIGTA) said in a recent report. TIGTA says the IRS has difficulty spotting ghost employers because it will have no record of them if they never file returns.

Financial advisors and tax professionals with small business owner clients should ensure they have considered every possible break that could help the bottom line, according to one expert.

The Internal Revenue Service's criminal investigators have been on the lookout for tax evasion by so-called "ghost employers" who don't pay employment taxes, and over 30 cases have been prosecuted in recent years, but the problem is far larger, according to a new report.

With the April tax filing deadline here, the Internal Revenue Service highlighted a variety of improvements that dramatically expanded service for millions of taxpayers during the 2024 filing season.

The IRS has provided a limited waiver of the addition to tax under Sec. 6655 for a corporate taxpayer's failure to pay estimated income tax with respect to its Sec. 55 corporate alternative minimum tax (AMT) liability.

The Department of Revenue Services and Internal Revenue Service have issued additional guidance on the taxability of Connecticut's Hero payments.

The 2024 filing season, which began with a hint of uncertainty, has progressed into one of the smoothest in recent memory — but the uncertainty still exists, fueled by court decisions and pending legislation.

The budget passed by Congress over the weekend officially rescinds $20 billion in long-term spending for the IRS, a move that the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) said will reduce federal revenues and increase the cumulative deficit.

Taxpayers are accessing the IRS website much more this year than last to find the answers they need to file their taxes. The number of visits reached 411,961,000 as of March 15, up 19.3% over the corresponding period in 2023.

The IRS has identified about $1 billion in potential savings from erroneous employee retention credit (ERC) claims, with over half of that money coming from enforcement efforts and the rest from the ERC voluntary disclosure program (VDP) and claim withdrawal process, officials said Friday.

The Internal Revenue Service has been making progress on catching up with its backlog of unprocessed tax returns, but more work needs to be done, according to a new report.

To counter promoters that marketed misleading information about the Employee Retention Credit (ERC), the Internal Revenue Service urged businesses to review seven suspicious signs of a bad claim and see if the agency’s special programs can help them avoid future compliance issues.

Danny Werfel understands that the IRS has a perception problem. The IRS commissioner said in a speech Monday at American University that the Service is "iconically unpopular," even playing a clip from The Simpsons to illustrate the point.