News

The Internal Revenue Service's Independent Office of Appeals today released its Focus GuidePDF for fiscal year 2024. The guide highlights where Appeals will be improving taxpayer service in its mission to resolve tax disputes in a fair and impartial manner without the need for litigation.

During open enrollment season for Flexible Spending Arrangements (FSAs), the Internal Revenue Service reminds taxpayers that they may be eligible to use tax-free dollars to pay medical expenses not covered by other health plans through their FSA.

As part of continuing efforts to combat dubious Employee Retention Credit (ERC) claims, the Internal Revenue Service is sending an initial round of more than 20,000 letters to taxpayers notifying them of disallowed ERC claims. IRS is disallowing claims to entities that did not exist or did not have paid employees during the period of eligibility to prevent improper ERC payments from being made to ineligible entities.

As the year draws to a close, practitioners have an opportunity to reach out to clients and discuss possible financial steps. The following highlights some of the more important year-end considerations.

The IRS is conducting a phone survey to help it improve services to tax professionals and their clients.

On Cyber Monday, the Internal Revenue Service, state tax agencies and the nation's tax industry – working together as the Security Summit – kicked-off the 8th National Tax Security Awareness Week with tips for taxpayers and tax professionals to avoid scams and protect sensitive personal information.

The Internal Revenue Service announced tax relief for individuals and businesses affected by the terrorist attacks in the State of Israel. These taxpayers now have until Oct. 7, 2024, to file various federal returns, make tax payments and perform other time-sensitive tax-related actions. In Notice 2023-71PDF, the IRS provided relief to certain taxpayers who, due to the terrorist attacks, may be unable to meet a tax-filing or tax-payment obligation, or may be unable to perform other time-sensitive tax-related actions. The IRS will continue to monitor events and may provide additional relief.

Taxpayers will have the option to go paperless for IRS correspondence by 2024 filing season, IRS to achieve paperless processing for all tax returns by filing season 2025.

A few clicks of the mouse could save practitioners a ton of time by assisting them in determining whether they need to apply the requirements of AR-C Section 70, Preparation of Financial Statements, when their bookkeeping or accounting services result in financial statements.

AI such as ChatGPT is changing the world as we know it. As a practitioner, can it help you better serve your clients, support your staff, and prepare you and your practice for the future? Let's first take a look at what ChatGPT is as we attempt to answer these questions. We will then provide an example of a conversation between this powerful AI chatbot and a hypothetical client and let you be the judge.

The narrow requirements for qualifying for the electric vehicle tax credits under the Inflation Reduction Act are causing some consternation in the auto industry, as they only seem to apply to a limited number of models, so accountants need to advise clients carefully about new vehicle purchases.

The IRS collected a single-year record of $4.9 trillion of total tax revenue from return filings in fiscal year 2022, the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration (TIGTA) said in a report on IRS compliance activities.

Paul N. Iannone, CPA, J.D., MST, and Danny A. Pannese, CPA/ABV/CFF, CVA, CSEP, MST, both associate professors in the Jack Welch College of Business & Technology at Sacred Heart University in Fairfield, wrote the Tax Advisor magazine cover story: 10 good reasons why LLCs should not elect to be S corporations.

In his final column for AccountingWEB, contributor and tax pro Mike Pusey, CPA covers tax provisions with broad applicability, a narrower focus, and termination of the "old" electric vehicle credit.

A U.S. accounting firm is not prohibited by a White House executive order regarding U.S. sanctions against Russia from providing tax advisory and preparation services to the U.S. subsidiary of a Russian company in certain scenarios, according to guidance issued Thursday by Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC).

IRS Commissioner Charles Rettig updated members of the Senate Finance Committee Thursday on the Service's performance in the soon-to-be-concluded tax filing season, as well as longer-term assessments of its efforts to modernize its operations, fill staffing gaps, and improve taxpayer service and enforcement.

As part of ongoing efforts to provide additional help for people during this period, the IRS announced today the suspension of more than a dozen additional letters, including the mailing of automated collection notices normally issued when a taxpayer owes additional tax, and the IRS has no record of a taxpayer filing a tax return.

The IRS announced Wednesday in a news release the letters and notices it will not send taxpayers as it works through its backlog of unprocessed prior-year returns.

The Internal Revenue Service has a brutal backlog of unfinished tax returns from last year, which has triggered more tax-time anxiety than one could imagine for many tax filers.