Notices finally arriving; big breaks for Oprah and Walmart; the snares of working remotely; and other highlights from our favorite tax bloggers.

What a relief

• Tax Warrior Chronicles (https://www.taxwarriors.com/blog): Favorite opening of the week: “We are starting to compare the Paycheck Protection Program to extra-innings in the longest baseball game ever recorded. It is now inning 19, two full games have been played, the only fans in the stands are the super-fans (nerdy tax advisors and weary borrowers), and the Treasury just hit a 2-out single with nobody on base.”
• National Taxpayer Advocate (https://taxpayeradvocate.irs.gov/about/nta-blog): During the shutdown, the IRS generated more than 20 million notices that never saw a mailbox (including ours, as it turns out). As a result, the notices’ deadlines have passed (some by several months) and some of the notices require taxpayers to respond by deadlines that also have passed. There is a silver lining, tell your affected and probably hair-pulling clients: Notice 1052-A, enclosed.
• Tax Girl (https://www.forbes.com/sites/kellyphillipserb/): Additional data from PPP loans is headed to the public eye. Namely, the names of businesses that received loans of $150,000 or more, as well as business addresses, business types, demographic data, jobs supported by the business and the NAICS number.
• Tax Vox (https://www.taxpolicycenter.org/taxvox): Should Congress manipulate the timing of business tax benefits to support firms in the midst of the COVID-19 economic slump? And if so, how?
• Sikich (https://www.sikich.com/insights/): Under the CARES Act, qualified individuals can receive favorable tax treatment for distributions from eligible retirement plans as long as the distributions were taken as a relief measure relating to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. A look at the latest guidance.
• Taxing Subjects (https://www.drakesoftware.com/blog): Concerning the above, the guidance expands the categories of individuals eligible for these kinds of distributions and loans and gives examples of tax treatment.
• Avalara (https://www.avalara.com/us/en/blog.html): A COVID-19 tax relief roundup, covering sales tax, state-specific taxes and a host of other topics.
• Don’t Mess with Taxes (http://dontmesswithtaxes.typepad.com/): Shipment methods the IRS would like some of us to use to send stimulus checks back, please.

Ever popular

• EideBailly (https://www.eidebailly.com/taxblog): Applicable federal rates for July.
• Rubin on Tax (http://rubinontax.floridatax.com): How formula clauses, used when property with uncertain value is transferred by gift or sale, received a boost in Wandry v. Commissioner.
• Procedurally Taxing (https://procedurallytaxing.com): Guest blogger Rochelle Hodes, principal at Crowe LLP, provides a timely discussion of “the ever-popular” IRC 6751(b) and another way it may help your client when the IRS seeks to penalize.
• Mauled Again (http://mauledagain.blogspot.com/): Another recent Tax Court case, Strashny v. Comr., is a useful example of why installment agreements are designed to help taxpayers who are in difficult financial situations (and not those who aren’t, especially when it comes to cryptocurrency).
• The Income Tax School (http://www.theincometaxschool.com/blog/): New emergency, same old scummy motivations: the latest on COVID-19 scams, including those related to Economic Impact Payments and the PPP.
• Bloomberg Tax (https://pro.bloombergtax.com/news-insights/): How Oprah and Walmart scored tax breaks on films that others made.
• Taxable Talk (http://www.taxabletalk.com/): How a couple of lawyers filed too late with the Tax Court on behalf of two marijuana dispensaries.

Practice questions

• Sagenext (https://www.thesagenext.com/blog): What is cloud hosting and how can you screw it up?
• Solutions For CPA Firm Leaders (http://ritakeller.com/blog/): Why do we call them “retired partners” if they’re going to continue to work? Why pay them “retirement” payments and pay them a salary to keep working? A look at the structure of a contract that could keep everyone happy in this oddly prevalent situation.
• Taxbuzz (https://www.taxbuzz.com/blog): Even as companies continue to reopen their doors, some are moving to have their employees work remotely permanently. Here’s what these employees will need to know about the tax implications — including potential tax liability in multiple jurisdictions.
• Boyum Barenscheer (https://myboyum.com/blog/): Family businesses make up most of companies in the U.S. and produce nearly two-thirds of the country’s GDP. They also potentially face higher fraud risk.
• Taxjar (http://blog.taxjar.com/): An overview of the new Texas marketplace facilitator law.