Cyber-safety at home; next for PPP and other relief; IDs not confidential; and other highlights from our favorite tax bloggers.

What a tool

• Intuit Tax Pro Center (https://proconnect.intuit.com/taxprocenter/): Tax professionals will want to know about a new web tool allowing quick registration for Economic Impact Payments. Launched by the U.S. Treasury Department and the IRS, the tool is intended for those who do not normally file a return.
• Taxbuzz (https://www.taxbuzz.com/blog): The IRS has already sent out 80 million stimulus payments to taxpayers that included their direct deposit information on their most recently filed 2019 or 2018 return. So, if you had filed either your 2019 or 2018 return before the direct deposits were issued, you should already have the money in the bank “UNLESS”….
• Tax Girl (https://www.forbes.com/sites/kellyphillipserb/): Favorite headline of the week: “Frustrated With The Stimulus Check Portal? IRS Says Try Again.”
• National Taxpayer Advocate (https://taxpayeradvocate.irs.gov/about/nta-blog): No doubt you’re had unavailable-statused clients asking WTF their EIP is from the IRS. What you can suggest to them to speed up the process.
• TaxMama (http://taxmama.com): From the blogger herself: “Several people have told me that they can finally find their information. I was also able to do so — but only after I filed my 2019 return. Some tips I learned…” (No. 1: “Don’t enter your address exactly as it appears on your tax return.”) Plus, the IRS is opening their mail again!

Zoom for improvement

• Boyum Barenscheer (https://myboyum.com/blog/): Many businesses were unprepared when the pandemic forced them to close their offices and send staffers on a Wi-Fi, WFH diaspora. Among the chores there was no time for: Here are five ways to protect your remote workers from cyberattacks.
• Solutions For CPA Firm Leaders (http://ritakeller.com/blog/): Are you a good Zoom citizen? “Zoom Tips for the Modern Age” include using Mute, sitting close to the screen and, as can also be the case in three-dimensional business meetings, not eating.
• The Income Tax School (http://www.theincometaxschool.com/blog/): There are a lot of uncertainties right now for people with jobs, people without jobs and those trying to run a business. That’s why learning new skills or advancing your current skills is a great strategy if you have time. Stuck at home? Soak up new knowledge and make yourself more valuable — and marketable.
• Canopy (https://www.canopytax.com/blog): Whether it’s to save money, increase productivity, or help the environment, many business owners are taking a serious look (again) at going paperless. Here are the benefits, plus steps and tips. Do not print them out.

Three P’s, second round

• Sikich (https://www.sikich.com/insights/): The Office of Management and Budget has issued agencies with additional flexibilities for grants that support their response to COVID-19. A key element of this memorandum was the extension of the single audit submission date to six months beyond the normal deadline.
• National Association of Tax Professionals (https://blog.natptax.com/): You make the call: Taxpayers withdrew money from a qualified tuition program or 529 plan to pay for their child’s qualified higher education expenses, including room and board. Due to COVID-19, the dorms closed, so the university refunded part of the room and board expenses that were paid for with QTP funds. Can the taxpayers redeposit the refunded room and board money back into the same QTP?
• Tax Warrior Chronicles (https://www.taxwarriors.com/blog): The blog’s last PPP entry covered long-awaited guidance for self-employed individuals and partnerships — on the very day that the SBA announced the program ran out of money. Today’s news: additional funding and an update on eligibility guidance.
• Summing It Up (http://blog.freedmaxick.com/summing-it-up): What health care providers should be considering regarding the CARES Act provision for $100 billion for the Public Health and Social Services Emergency Fund, which reimburses eligible providers for expenses and lost revenue attributable to COVID-19.
• Tax Foundation (https://taxfoundation.org/blog): Rather than relying on new tax subsidies or policies to address the economic issues resulting from the pandemic, lawmakers can look to reforms within the existing tax system to clear the path for businesses and individuals to invest and create jobs in the new economy. One of the most cost-effective policy changes would be to make full expensing of machinery and equipment permanent.
• Mauled Again (http://mauledagain.blogspot.com/): Even in a crisis, tax breaks disproportionately benefit the wealthy. They’ll find a cure for COVID-19 before they find one for greed.

Matters of choice

• Federal Tax Crimes (http://federaltaxcrimes.blogspot.com/): In Taylor Lohmeyer Law Firm PLLC v. United States, the Court of Appeals affirmed the district court’s enforcement of a John Doe Summons to a law firm to obtain documents that included the identities of certain of the firm’s clients — rejecting the argument that the identities were confidential client communications.
• TaxProf (http://taxprof.typepad.com/taxprof_blog/): A look at a special part of the American dream: “Entrepreneurs’ Legal Status Choices and the C Corporation Survival Penalty.”
• Taxjar (http://blog.taxjar.com/): Iowa now requires marketplaces to collect sales tax on behalf of sellers on online marketplaces like Amazon and Walmart. But as usual in this area of tax, there are always a few questions.
• Avalara (https://www.avalara.com/us/en/index.html): The California Department of Tax and Fee Administration has clarified how long retailers with no physical presence in the state must continue to collect state and local sales and use tax after their sales drop below the economic nexus threshold.
• Procedurally Taxing (https://procedurallytaxing.com): The skinny on requesting a collection due process hearing for notices sent in March, as the IRS has posted additional QAs regarding the meaning of Notice 2020-23.