With the soaring cost of college tuition rising on a yearly basis, tax-free tuition gifts to children and grandchildren can help them afford such an expensive endeavor, as well as save the generous taxpayers in gift and generation skipping taxes. Under federal law, tuition payments that are made directly to an educational institution on behalf […]

The IRS has announced that taxpayers will not be required to report the new Code Sec. 4501 excise tax on stock repurchases during a covered corporation’s tax year on any returns filed with the IRS, or to make such tax payments, before the time specified in the forthcoming regulations previously announced in Notice 2023-2, I.R.B. 2023-3, 374. Moreover, there will be no addition to […]

The IRS announced transition relief for plan administrators, payors, plan participants, IRA owners, and beneficiaries in connection with the change to the required beginning date for required minimum distributions (RMDs) under Code Sec. 401(a)(9) and pursuant to the SECURE 2.0 Act of 2022 (P.L. 117-328). The transition relief extends the deadline to roll over certain distributions that were mischaracterized as RMDs and allows beneficiaries under the 10-year rule to avoid taking […]

The American Bar Association offered the Internal Revenue Service a series of suggestions in response to a proposed regulation regarding supervisory approval of certain penalties. In a July 7, 2023, letter to the agency, ABA noted that there has been “significant litigation regarding when the Service must obtain supervisoryapproval as well as who must approve the penalty and the form of that approval” under Code Sec. 6751(b). The organization stated that […]

The IRS Electronic Tax Administration Advisory Committee(ETAAC) in a series of recommendations to the agency and Congress is looking for improvements in agency accountability as well as stressing the agency needs to remain impartial. The committee, in its annual report released June 28, 2023, made 26 recommendations through which it “advises Congress to provide timely tax legislation and consistent multi-year funding while it urges the IRS to prioritize IRS website […]

The American Institute of CPAs has offered the Internal Revenue Service a series of recommendations on how the agency could handle non-fungible tokens. In a June 16, 2023, letter to the agency, AIPCA provided comments on Notice 2023-27, which outlines the treatment of certain NFTs. The organization said that it hopes “that IRS will provide additional guidance to clarify how digital […]

Action is needed at the legislative level to address issues the Internal Revenue Service has with disaster relief, National Taxpayer Advocate Erin Collins said. In a pair of recent blog posts, Collins highlighted that taxpayers in recently declared disaster areas have been receiving “notice and demand” collection letters from the agency, contrary to other public information about when payments are due and when interest on […]

The additional funding provided to the Internal Revenue Service under the Inflation Reduction Act is already paying dividends when it comes to increased enforcement, agency Commissioner Daniel Werfel said. “We are now taking swift and aggressive action to close the gap” after years of underfunding prevented the IRS from adequately auditing and enforcing the tax laws on the wealthiest taxpayers, Commissioner Werfel said during a July 13, […]