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.
Individuals
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.
More proposed regs. on qualified opportunity funds issued
The regulations define the term “substantially all,” the definition of which was reserved in the earlier proposed regulations issued in October 2018.
IRS expands relief from underpayment penalty
The IRS announced that it is lowering from 85% to 80% the amount taxpayers are required to have paid in order to escape an underpayment of estimated income tax penalty for 2018.
Opportunities beckon in new qualified opportunity zones
With their prospects for deferral or even exclusion of gains from certain investments in them, the newly created qualified opportunity zones offer an intriguing tax planning option for investors and a potential boon for distressed communities.
Qualified business income deduction regs. and other guidance issued
The package includes final regulations, guidance on how to calculate W-2 wages, a safe-harbor rule for rental real estate businesses, and new proposed rules on the treatment of previously suspended losses.
Some individual taxpayers get relief from underpayment penalty
The relief applies to individuals whose tax withheld and estimated tax payments equal at least 85% of the tax shown on their 2018 tax return.
IRS announces Free File launch
The IRS announced that its Free File program, which provides free electronic filing options to moderate-income taxpayers, opened Jan. 11 and will operate through Oct. 15.
