Limits on collection; states’ tax friendliness; write your Chief Counsel; and other highlights from our favorite tax bloggers.

Spook central

• Liberty (http://www.libertytax.com/tax-lounge): As a gift for your organizer (and your optimism that some clients may actually start lining up their ducks before January), here are “Four Tax Preparation Tips to Consider for 2020.”
• Taxbuzz (https://www.taxbuzz.com/blog): Taxpayers who owe may worry with every knock on the door, concerned about the arrival of IRS. When can that feeling go away, via the statute of limitations on tax-debt collection?
• Canopy (https://www.canopytax.com/blog): In honor of the season, “3 Spooky Clients You Should Avoid” look at vampires, ghosts and skeletons.
• Turbotax (https://blog.turbotax.intuit.com/): What to remind them about to save on taxes during life’s transitions.
• Solutions For CPA Firm Leaders (http://ritakeller.com/blog/): Get the right people on the bus — a lesson from the book “Good to Great” by Jim Collins. Those who build great organizations make sure they have the right people in the key seats before they figure out where to drive. (Note: Wouldn’t you rather know where the bus was going before you get on?)
• Taxjar (http://blog.taxjar.com/): If you have clients who are remote sellers with a store on Amazon or the like, they may be excited that marketplace facilitator laws can potentially ease the burden of collecting far-flung sales tax. In some cases, this is true. Too bad few sellers qualify for the breaks.

From all over

• Taxable Talk (http://www.taxabletalk.com/): The Tax Foundation’s “2020 State Business Tax Climate Index” offers “the usual laggards, but some new faces on top.” There weren’t many surprises with the best states (the likes of Wyoming, South Dakota, Alaska and Florida), and of course “favorites” such as Connecticut, California, New York and New Jersey round out the performers with “complex, non-neutral taxes with comparatively high rates.”
• Tax Vox (https://www.taxpolicycenter.org/taxvox): Colorado and Texas voters face tricky and potentially far-reaching tax policy questions at the ballot box this November. In Colorado, voters will decide whether to revise the state’s Taxpayer Bill of Rights, and Texans may find that “overzealous anti-tax political maneuvering” may inadvertently repeal their business franchise tax.
• Tax, Society Culture (http://taxpol.blogspot.com/): Coordination among nations over the taxation of international transactions rests on a network of some 2,000 bilateral double tax treaties. The double tax treaty is, in many ways, the root of the international system of taxation. That system is in upheaval in the face of globalization, technological advances, taxpayer abuse and shifting political tides. A look at a recent paper on the topic.

Open a channel

• Income Tax School (http://www.theincometaxschool.com/blog/): A look back at the big IRS news for September and October, from guidance on virtual currency to a final ruling on overtime pay.
• Procedurally Taxing (https://procedurallytaxing.com): In Chief Counsel Notice 2020-002, “Communication with Taxpayers or Representatives by Email” the office announces a process for communication between Chief Counsel attorneys and practitioners on case matters — a long time coming and an important step in communication on cases.
• Bloomberg Tax (https://pro.bloombergtax.com/news-insights/): A coal partnership can’t take a $155.5 million charitable deduction for donating certain property ownership rights, the U.S. Tax Court said in a recent ruling.