Tax Blog/Blawg

The IRS wants you to be entertained – in a twisted sort of way. The deductibility of employer expenses around entertainment, amusement, recreation, or qualified transportation fringes has a long history that most people would not find very entertaining. Just when many of us thought we understood what an employer could or could not deduct under Internal Revenue Code Section 274, the Tax Jobs and Creations Act of 2017, made the entertainment’s plot change dramatically. The boring documentary suddenly became a bit of a horror picture.

With those caveats, if you read no further ...

As discussed in an earlier Chamberlain Tax Blawg, on August 28 Treasury issued Notice 2020-65 which defers the due date for withholding, deposit and payment of employee-side taxes imposed under Section 3101(a) (FICA) and corresponding taxes under Section 3201 (RRT).  Since the issuance of this Notice, there has been much commentary – in addition to consternation and hand-wringing on the part of clients – about a multitude of issues the Notice implicates. 

On September 8, the Texas Society of Certified Public Accountants added to this chorus with a comment letter to Treasury and ...

On Friday, in response to an August 8, 2020 Presidential Memorandum, Treasury issued Notice 2020-65 which defers the due date for withholding, deposit and payment of employee-side taxes imposed under Section 3101(a) (FICA) and corresponding taxes under Section 3201 (RRT). This deferral is effective September 1!

No doubt this Notice will be the subject of fierce political debate. The day of the Notice’s release, Congressman Don Beyer of Virginia fired a first shot across the bow. In a press release, the Congressman accused the deferral of being a “gimmick” that “could hit ...

On August 24, the IRS issued an internal memorandum that impacts when taxpayers may obtain IRS Appeals Conferences if their issues are designated for litigation.  As background, the IRS has a long-standing policy of permitting taxpayers an administrative-level review of audit adjustments by referring matters to its Office of Appeals.  For decades, this review process was discretionary for the IRS to offer.  It was a matter of administrative grace.  No longer.

Enter The Taxpayer First Act

In July 2019, Congress enacted The Taxpayer First Act which codified the Appeals Office (with a new ...

There is an old saying: “Those who can, do, and those who can’t, teach.” Of course, there are also people who can’t “do” or “teach,” and what happens to all those folks? It is obvious that some of them have chosen to go into political commentary, whether on their own podcast or National media. Others, it seems, have found a very pleasant home in the Office of the Treasury Inspector General Tax Administration, aka “TIGTA.” What prompts my comments are several assertions in the May 31, 2019 Report entitled “Few Accuracy-Related Penalties Are Proposed in Large ...

All taxpayers, whether individuals or not, may deduct as business expenses the costs relating to tax matters that are ordinary and necessary in the conduct of their trade or business under Section 162 of the Internal Revenue Code.  However, certain non-business expenses are also deductible under Section 212, "Expenses for production of income."  Notwithstanding the somewhat limiting title of Section 212, subsection (3) currently permits a deduction for non-business expenses that can have nothing to do with the production of income, namely expenses paid or incurred "in connection ...