Current News

2024-01-31 IR-2023-230, Dec. 6, 2023 The IRS warns taxpayers to use extreme caution before applying for the ERC as aggressive maneuvers continue by marketers and scammers, and urges taxpayers who submitted claims to review the ERC requirements and talk to a trusted tax professional about their eligibility amid misleading marketing around the credit. When properly claimed, the ERC is a refundable tax credit designed for businesses that continued paying employees…

2024-01-31 The Internal Revenue Service has taken the first step to initiating its Direct File pilot, and on January 29, 2024, launched the Direct File landing page (https://directfile.irs.gov), providing taxpayers a resource to learn more about the program, assess their eligibility to participate in the Direct File pilot, and to receive notification when the pilot goes live. The site indicates that if you lived in a state that is not…

2024-01-30 IR-2023-244, Dec. 19, 2023 In January 2024, the IRS will begin sending automated collection notices and letters to individuals with tax debts prior to tax year 2022, and businesses, tax exempt organizations, trusts and estates with tax debts prior to 2023, with exceptions for those with existing debt in multiple years. These notices and letters were previously paused due to the pandemic and high inventories at the IRS, but…

2024-01-26 Every employer who pays compensation for services performed by employees must report to the IRS the wages paid, and related employment taxes including income tax withholding, social security tax, Medicare tax and, if applicable, Additional Medicare Tax. Generally, employers must report wages, tips and other compensation paid to an employee by filing Form 941, Employer’s Quarterly Federal Tax Return. But, small employers (those with annual employment tax liabilities of…

2024-01-25 Federal law requires you, as an employer, to withhold, or take out of your employees’ pay, certain amounts for federal income tax, social security tax, and Medicare tax. Under the withholding system, taxes withheld from your employees are credited to your employees in payment of their tax liabilities. Federal law also requires you to pay the employer’s share of social security tax and Medicare tax; it is not withheld…

2024-01-24 All employers are encouraged to file electronically. E-filing not saves time, and is secure and accurate. The Information Returns Intake System (IRIS) Taxpayer Portal provides a no cost online method for taxpayers to electronically file Form 1099-series information returns. This free electronic filing service irequires no special software. IRIS may be especially helpful to any organization that currently sends paper Forms 1099 to the IRS. With IRIS, business taxpayers…

2024-01-24 The Department of the Treasury and the Internal Revenue Service issued final regulations amending the rules for filing 2023 returns and other documents electronically. Starting tax year 2023, if you have 10 or more information returns, you must file them electronically. To determine if returns must be filed electronically, an employer must add together the number of information returns and the number of Forms W-2 required to be filed…

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…

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…