IRS Provides Relief from Additions to Tax for Certain Taxpayers’ Failure to Timely Pay Income Tax for Taxable Years 2020 and 2021

2024-01-04 IRS Notice 2024-7 provides relief for certain taxpayers from additions to tax for the failure to pay income tax with respect to certain income tax returns for taxable years 2020 and 2021. These additions to tax for the failure to pay income tax will be waived or, to the extent previously assessed or paid, will be abated, refunded, or credited to other outstanding tax liabilities. There are situations in…

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IRS Voluntary Disclosure Program for questionable Employee Retention Credits

2024-01-04 A new IRS Voluntary Disclosure Program lets employers who received questionable Employee Retention Credits pay them back at discounted rate; interested taxpayers must apply by March 22. The IRS also continues to urge employers with pending ERC claims to consider a separate withdrawal program that allows them to remove a pending ERC claim with no interest or penalty. Interested employers must apply to the ERC Voluntary Disclosure Program by…

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Corporate Transparency Act (“CTA”) reporting starting January 1, 2024

2023-11-01 Congress passed the CTA in December 2020, requiring disclosure of extensive information on the owners and persons in control of entities, including most private businesses with less than 20 full-time employees, and less than $5,000,000 annual gross receipts, to the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (“FINCEN”) beginning on January 1, 2024. The CTA’s reach is very broad and will impact persons who own businesses, LLCs to hold real estate, family…

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Tax professional account

2023-11-01 The IRS continues to provide enhanced capabilities for tax professionals' online accounts, helping practitioners manage their active client authorizations on file with the Centralized Authorization File (CAF) database, which stores the information on individuals authorized to act on a taxpayer's behalf. Other enhancements put into place in September 2023 allow tax professionals to view their client's tax information, including balance due amounts. Tax Pro Account users can now also…

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IRS Individual accounts

2023-11-01 The IRS continues to deploy enhanced capabilities for individual accounts following the May launch of virtual assistance and live chat. Taxpayers can now validate their bank accounts and save multiple accounts, eliminating the need to re-enter bank account information every time they make a payment. This feature launched at the end of September.

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IRS to Enable taxpayers to submit mobile-friendly forms

2023-11-01 The IRS is enabling taxpayers to submit mobile-friendly forms with the launch of the first three forms. These forms are adaptive for mobile device screen and can be submitted electronically when completed. This is also an important milestone toward the IRS goal of meeting taxpayers where they are and allowing them to interact with the IRS in the ways that work best for them. An estimated 15% of Americans…

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Employers Can Use Educational Assistance Programs to Help Pay Employees’ Student Loans

2023-08-25 IR-2023-152 August 24, 2023 Traditionally, educational assistance programs have been used to pay for books, equipment, supplies, fees, tuition and other education expenses for the employee. These programs can now also be used to pay principal and interest on an employee’s qualified education loans. Payments made directly to the lender, as well as those made to the employee, qualify. Tax-free educational assistance program benefits are limited to $5,250 per…

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IRS ends unannounced revenue officer visits to taxpayers – IR-2023-133, July 24, 2023

2023-07-25 The IRS announced a major policy change that will end most unannounced visits to taxpayers by agency revenue officers to reduce public confusion and enhance overall safety measures for taxpayers and employees. Effective immediately, unannounced visits will end except in a few unique circumstances and will be replaced with mailed letters to schedule meetings. The change reverses a decades-long practice by IRS revenue officers, the unarmed agency employees whose…

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IRS warns of Employee Retention Credit scams

2023-07-24 The IRS warned businesses and tax-exempt organizations to watch out for telltale signs of misleading claims involving the Employee Retention Credit. Scammers and unscrupulous promoters continue to run aggressive broadcast advertising, direct mail solicitations and online promotions for the credit. Many of these ads wildly misrepresent and exaggerate who can qualify for the ERC, which is sometimes also called ERTC or the Employee Retention Tax Credit. Employers should carefully…

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