News

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.

The U.S. Justice Department (DOJ) appealed a federal court decision that held the Corporate Transparency Act (CTA), P.L. 116-283, which requires the reporting of beneficial ownership information (BOI) by businesses, is unconstitutional.

More than two-thirds of this batch will go toward infrastructure and transportation projects.

The Department of Labor has announced a six-factor test for determining whether a worker is an independent contractor or an employee under the Fair Labor Standards Act. This new rule takes effect on March 11, 2024.

The SEC on Wednesday adopted a long-awaited rule for climate-related disclosures.

IRS Commissioner Danny Werfel defended his agency's delay of the implementation of a lower threshold for reporting income on Forms 1099-K, telling a House committee on Thursday that his office has the responsibility to protect taxpayer rights.

The IRS could collect $561 billion in tax revenue over 10 years if it maintains its funding from the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022, P.L. 117-169, the Service said in a study released Tuesday.

The House on Wednesday passed a roughly $78 billion tax bill that contains provisions making changes to restrict the employee retention credit (ERC), expand eligibility for the child tax credit (CTC), and temporarily reinstate the expensing of research or experimental (R&E) expenditures. It also restores tax breaks for companies from the law known as the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, P.L. 115-97, that have expired or would expire in the coming years.

In Rev. Proc. 2023-29, recently issued by the Internal Revenue Service, the affordability percentage for Affordable Care Act plans has been set at 8.39% beginning in 2024. This marks a significant decrease from the previous 9.12% applicable for 2023. This is the lowest percentage since the inception of the employer mandate which means these plans will cost employers more.

Inflation adjustments have significantly increased the civil monetary penalties for violating the beneficial ownership information (BOI) reporting rules and for the unauthorized disclosure or use of BOI. The rules requiring the reporting of BOI just went into effect this month.

New London county has received a FEMA disaster emergency declaration which allows for the postponement of certain due dates for specific tax filings and tax payments. It also allows for the deduction of casualty losses attributable to emergency declaration within the declared area.

On September 14th, 2023, the IRS announced a moratorium until at least the end of the year on the acceptance of new ERC claims. This moratorium was implemented due to the number of fraudulent claims being filed across the nation. In total, the IRS has received 3 million ERC claims, and nearly a fifth of all applications received were submitted in the 90 days before the declaration of the moratorium, indicating a large spike in fraudulent filings. Many businesses have been encouraged to apply by “Tax Promoters.” “Tax Promoters” encourage and pressure businesses across the nation to file, often improperly indicating that businesses are eligible to receive a refund. With this in mind, the IRS has implemented a withdrawal process for those who filed for the credit in err.

The Governmental Accounting Standards Board (GASB) issued guidance today that requires governments to disclose information about certain risks.

House and Senate leaders on Sunday announced a spending deal for government funding in 2024, the first step to averting a shutdown later this month even as that threat still looms.

A U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) report released earlier this month showed a need for improvement in audits of employee benefit plan financial statements.

In a letter addressed to members of the House Financial Services Committee and Senate Banking Committee, the AICPA and all 54 state CPA societies, including the Connecticut Society of CPAs asked that H.R. 4035 and S. 2623, the Protecting Small Business Information Act of 2023, or similar legislation to delay, be included in any year-end legislative package. The bills would delay the Beneficial Ownership Information (BOI) reporting requirement until all three rules under the Corporate Transparency Act have been finalized to specify that all such rules would take effect on the same date.

After bipartisan approval in the Senate, the House similarly passed the National Defense Authorization Act on Thursday.

As the International Auditing and Assurance Standards Board (IAASB) works to finalize a new global standard for assurance of sustainability reporting, the AICPA is working to provide important feedback to ensure the final standard works for CPAs in the United States.

The AICPA Professional Ethics Executive Committee (PEEC) has released new authoritative guidance related to public interest entities. The new definition of publicly traded entity and the revised definition of public interest entity fulfill the AICPA's responsibility as a member body of the International Federation of Accountants (IFAC) to converge with recent changes in international ethics for accountants.

CTCPA has joined AICPA and dozens of other state CPA societies to ask the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) to extend and expand the deadline for beneficial ownership information (BOI) reporting requirements, specifically for Reporting Companies Created or Registered in 2024.