In the blogs: Extender exasperation – 1040 Tax Plus Services

By Admin

February 28, 2018

He who must be named; what’s changing and what isn’t; spins of the Coin; and other highlights from our favorite tax bloggers.

Extender exasperation

Procedurally Taxing (http://procedurallytaxing.com): Today’s read: Tax lawyer Chuck Rettig and the Potential Goblet of Magic at the IRS.
Tax Foundation (https://taxfoundation.org/blog): Golden’s One Word Dept.: How California’s corporate income tax rate could rival its federal counterpart, depending on the fate of a constitutional amendment pending before the General Assembly in Sacramento that would more than double the state’s corporate income tax rate to “an astonishing” 18.84 percent.
NTA blog (https://taxpayeradvocate.irs.gov/about/nta-blog): The IRS has many problems, but maybe none as serious as lousy training: The Taxpayer Advocate Service found that while the IRS upped the training budget since a low point in FY 2013, cuts to spending on training far outpace cuts to the overall IRS budget. In FY 2017 the IRS spent only $489 per employee on training, nearly $1,000 less per employee compared with 2009 levels.
TaxProf Blog (http://taxprof.typepad.com/taxprof_blog/): A look at a recent presentation on a lesser-known form of unbalanced monetary scales: taxing inequality. Is the long-debated wealth tax an answer?
Tax Girl (http://blogs.forbes.com/kellyphillipserb): The bipartisan budget deal recently resuscitated a select group of extenders through 2017. A look at which of those extenders the IRS can deal with so far on returns. One wonders on the eve of March just how confusing the higher powers want to make this tax season.
Rubin on Tax (http://rubinontax.floridatax.com): The new tax act’s Sec. 951A creates a new class of income of a CFC that is taxed currently to U.S. shareholders: “global intangible low-taxed income,” or GILTI. A look at the details of this disturbingly court-sounding term.

Party killers

John R. Dundon II EA (http://johnrdundon.com/): Our favorite opening of the week: “Cocktail party-killer one-liners” on five IRS penalties that changed under the TCJA. Jokes aside, make sure you know these.
Sageworks (https://www.sageworks.com/blog/default.aspx): Four Olympic sports that accountants can learn from, such as the biathlon (“multiple skill sets”) and figure skating (“a graceful sport that combines the raw power of jumping and spinning with elegant dancing [but] beneath the actual skating are numbers…”).
Intuit ProConnect (http://taxprocenter.proconnect.intuit.com/): Whether you partner with a peer from another firm or a colleague in your practice, shadowing can be one way to grow your knowledge and skills. A few tips from Intuit’s own shadowing program, including the need for constant communication.
Solutions for CPA Firm Leaders (http://ritakeller.com/blog/): The annual performance feedback session can certainly and easily become a dreaded yearly moment, but it pays to remember that the gains can outweigh the work involved.

Touching base

Taxable Talk (http://www.taxabletalk.com/): Two of the blogger’s clients received e-mails from Coinbase, and this practitioner for one wishes to clear up a couple matters — starting with how complying with an IRS summons does not make a “victory.”
Federal Tax Crimes (http://federaltaxcrimes.blogspot.com/): An additional and legalistically detailed look at the summons and Coinbase, and compliance thereof.
Manhany Law (http://www.mahanyertl.com/mahanyertl/): From rural telephone provider to fourth-largest provider of digital subscriber lines in the U.S. to having a subsidiary accused of defrauding taxpayers was a quick trip for one company. Also, Medicare’s Office of Inspector General says that Medicare fraud involving chiropractors is on the rise.

Coded responses

Dinesen Tax Times (http://dinesentax.com/blog): As deductions dry up in our tax law like puddles on an August sidewalk, these “Basics of Form 8283” can help remind clients about how to properly get credit for big donations.
Summing It Up (http://blog.freedmaxick.com/summing-it-up): The more things change the more some things stay the same: A look at a relieving lack of shakeups in applying for the business RD credit.
Liberty Tax (http://www.libertytax.com/tax-lounge): Scads of clients wonder where the heck their refund is, of course, and here’s a good set of answers beyond your exasperated “be patient”: A list of Where’s My Refund tool reference codes.
Smith Gesteland (https://sgcpa.com/resources/focus-blog/): The code is surely on the move this year, as everyone knows. What about the deduction for moving costs 2017 versus 2018?