More taxpayers qualify for student loan COD relief
The IRS is expanding its relief from cancellation-of-debt income to students whose federal loans were discharged for certain legal reasons.
Individuals
IRS issues 2020 standard mileage rates
On the last day of 2019, the IRS issued the standard mileage rates for 2020 for business, charitable, medical, or moving expense purposes, as well as other deduction amounts.
Qualified opportunity zone regs. finalized
The IRS issued final regulations providing guidance on tax-favored investments in qualified opportunity zones (QOZs).
Year-end government spending bill contains many tax provisions
The consolidated appropriations bill passed by Congress makes many changes to retirement plan rules, repeals health care taxes, extends expired tax provisions, and provides tax relief for disaster victims.
5th Circuit invalidates health care law’s individual mandate
The Fifth Circuit held that the “individual mandate” under Sec. 5000A, which imposes a “shared responsibility payment” on taxpayers who do not obtain health insurance that provides at least minimum essential coverage, is unconstitutional now that the payment amount has been reduced to zero.
Guidance issued on payments to charitable organizations
The IRS issued additional rules on the treatment of deductions for charitable contributions in lieu of state and local taxes, an area in which it has already issued final regulations and other guidance.
Deadline for health care information statements extended
As it does every year, the IRS extended the due date to furnish certain health care information statements to individual taxpayers to March 2, 2020.
Per-diem method clarified in light of TCJA changes
The IRS issued updated rules for substantiating the amount of ordinary and necessary business expenses paid or incurred while traveling away from home using the per-diem rates.
Use of standard mileage rate, other rules are updated for TCJA
The IRS updated its rules concerning the use of standard mileage rates and to reflect the current suspension of miscellaneous itemized deductions and moving expense deductions.
Taxpayers may deduct casualty losses in prior years
The IRS finalized regulations permitting taxpayers to deduct disaster losses in the prior tax year and removed the related temporary regulations that were issued in 2016.
IRS clarifies the tax treatment of cryptocurrency ‘hard forks’ and ‘airdrops’
The IRS ruled that a taxpayer does not have gross income as a result of a hard fork of a cryptocurrency if the taxpayer does not receive units of a new cryptocurrency, but does have gross income as a result of an airdrop of new cryptocurrency after a hard fork if the taxpayer receives units of the new cryptocurrency.
IRS issues 2019 to 2020 per-diem rates for traveling away from home
The IRS issued its annual notice specifying the special per-diem rates, including the transportation industry meal and incidental expenses rates, the rate for the incidental-expenses-only deduction, and the rates and list of high-cost localities for purposes of the high-low substantiation method.
Safe harbor allows QBI deduction for rental real estate businesses
The IRS issued a revenue procedure describing the requirements taxpayers have to meet to be a rental real estate business that qualifies for the safe harbor to be treated as a trade or business in order to qualify for the Sec. 199A qualified business income deduction.
Final regs. loosen 401(k) hardship distribution requirements
The IRS issued final regulations governing hardship distributions from Sec. 401(k) plans, eliminating the requirements that participants obtain a loan from the plan if available and that suspend participants’ ability to make contributions to the plans for six months after taking a hardship distribution.
IRS offers expatriate tax relief
The IRS announced procedures to allow certain individuals who have renounced their US citizenship to get into compliance with their U.S. tax obligations and obtain relief for back taxes.
Proposed regs. govern maximum automobile values
The IRS issued proposed rules that provide maximum automobile values for the cents-per-mile and fleet-average valuation rules used to determine the amount to include in an employee’s gross income for personal use of an employer-provided vehicle.
Alimony tax gap swells to $3.2 billion, TIGTA finds
Discrepancies between the amount of alimony deducted by payers and reported as income by its recipients increased by 38% in six years, the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration reported.
Guidance adds preventive care items to high-deductible health plans
The IRS added 14 types of preventive care items that qualify to be provided under a high-deductible health plan to treat chronic medical conditions.
IRS issues draft of revised Form W-4 for 2020
The new draft form, which has been extensively redesigned, is intended to simplify the calculation of income tax withholding after the changes made by the law known as the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act.
IRS changes maximum-vehicle-value rule
The IRS revised its maximum-vehicle-value rule for personal use of an employer-provided vehicle for 2019 for both the cents-per-mile rule and the fleet-average-valuation rule.
