Tax News - The Tax Adviser

July 18, 2016

Agencies Propose Amendments to Employee Benefit Plan Reporting

Employee benefit plans will face new reporting requirements under extensive changes to Form 5500, Annual Return/Report of Employee Benefit Plan, proposed by the federal government.

July 15, 2016

IRS Provides Safe Harbors for Acquisition of Control in Certain Corporate Transactions

The IRS issued guidance that provides safe harbors for corporations, under which the IRS will not assert that a distributing corporation lacks control of another corporation within the meaning of Sec. 355(a)(1)(A).

July 8, 2016

IRS Implements New Sec. 501(c)(4) Registration Requirement

Social welfare benefit organizations are now required to notify the Internal Revenue Service of their formation and intent to operate under Sec. 501(c)(4).

July 8, 2016

Taxpayer Advocate Raises Concerns About IRS Use of Private Debt Collectors

Nina Olson, the national taxpayer advocate, raised several concerns about the IRS’s use of private debt collection services in her annual report to Congress, saying the practice will hurt taxpayers and harm tax administration.

July 7, 2016

IRS Issues Rules for Money Market Fund Accounting Methods

The IRS finalized regulations that implement new SEC rules that change how gains and losses in money market funds are calculated.

June 30, 2016

Final Rules Govern U.S. Country-by-Country Reporting

The IRS issued final regulations requiring the ultimate parent entity of a multinational enterprise group with revenue of $850 million or more in the preceding accounting period to file Form 8975, Country-by-Country Report.

June 23, 2016

E-file PIN Program Shut Down in Response to Cyberattacks

The IRS announced that the electronic filing personal identification number (e-file PIN) tool is “no longer available” after it detected additional attacks on the system.

June 22, 2016

IRS Issues Sec. 409A Proposed Regulations

The IRS issued proposed regulations under Sec. 409A, which provides that if certain requirements are not met, amounts deferred under a nonqualified deferred compensation plan are currently includible in gross income.

June 16, 2016

FAQs Explain the Wrongful Incarceration Exclusion

A new law allows taxpayers to exclude from income money they receive to compensate them for being wrongfully incarcerated and to claim refunds for earlier tax years if they included such damages in income.

June 13, 2016

How to Calculate the Investment in the Contract for Phased Retirement Distributions

The IRS explained how to calculate the investment in the contract for retirement benefits distributed while the employee is still working part time and that nonqualifying contracts could not take advantage of the same rules.

June 10, 2016

IRS Rules on Qualified Real Property Indebtedness

The IRS issued a ruling explaining when a taxpayer can exclude cancellation-of-debt income for debt forgiven in connection with property held in a real property trade or business.

June 9, 2016

Final Regulations Clarify COD Rules for Grantor Trusts and Disregarded Entities

The IRS finalized regulations that provide rules for determining who is the “taxpayer” for purposes of applying the Sec. 108 discharge-of-indebtedness rules to a grantor trust or disregarded entity.

June 8, 2016

IRS Did Not Discover or Help All Get Transcript Data Breach Victims

The TIGTA criticized the IRS’s failure to identify and assist all taxpayers whose tax return and other data may have been accessed by cybercriminals in last year’s Get Transcript breach.

June 7, 2016

Taxpayers Can Get Tax Return Transcripts Online Once Again

Announcing increased security and authentication procedures, the IRS said that it had reinstated its Get Transcript Online service, which had been breached by cybercriminals last year.

June 7, 2016

Tax-Free REIT Spinoffs Are Curtailed

The IRS issued regulations restricting the ability of C corporations to use this method.

June 3, 2016

FASAB Seeks Transparency on Tax Expenditures

The Federal Accounting Standards Advisory Board proposed a standard with the intention of providing the public more information about the U.S. government’s tax expenditures.

May 31, 2016

IRS Slashes Application Fee for Small Exempt Organizations

The fee to use the popular Form 1023-EZ will be lowered, starting July 1.

May 26, 2016

AICPA Members Weigh In on IRS Service Levels

Problems included trouble getting through on the phone and trouble reaching IRS representatives who could answer their questions. Written communications with the agency were another source of frustrations.

May 25, 2016

Mary Kay Sales Consultant’s Retirement Payments Subject to Self-Employment Tax

The Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals held that payments a retired Mary Kay sales consultant received from the cosmetics company were subject to self-employment taxes because they were payments of deferred compensation.

May 18, 2016