Expanding the EITC; helping with ITINs; confusing nexus; and other highlights from our favorite tax bloggers.

Vape fear

• Tax Foundation (https://taxfoundation.org/blog): How would-be Democratic presidential candidate and Colorado Senator Michael Bennet wants to expand the maximum Earned Income Tax Credit for childless workers from $529 to $3,000 to increase disposable income.
• Tax Girl (https://www.forbes.com/sites/kellyphillipserb/): Lisbon may soon mean to cryptocurrency holders what it meant to refugees in Casablanca after the Portuguese Tax Customs Authority’s announcement that buying or selling cryptocurrency in Portugal is tax-free.
• Don’t Mess With Taxes (http://dontmesswithtaxes.typepad.com/): Vaping was once thought to be a safe alternative to cigarettes. That perspective is changing dramatically. So’s the idea of not taxing vaping — with all the attending political ramifications.
• Mauled Again (http://mauledagain.blogspot.com/): Politicians, lobbyists, oligarchs, and some others often use the “taxes deter investment” and “taxes chase people out of states and cities” arguments to defend reducing taxes for people whose after-tax income is plentiful. So recently Pew Charitable Trusts conducted a survey to determine why some 60,000 people move out of Philadelphia every year. Were taxes mentioned much?

To the rescue

• Taxable Talk (http://www.taxabletalk.com/): Tell your extended clients it’s already time to panic in terms of getting their paperwork to you. This tax year is different, with the average return taking 10 percent longer than last year. Clock’s ticking.
• Canopy (https://www.canopytax.com/blog): One of the ways you can provide outstanding service for your clients is by making them aware of tax-related issues before they become a problem. And consider that many taxpayers who use ITINs aren’t aware that as of 2016 the numbers must be renewed periodically. How to ride to the rescue.
• Taxbuzz (https://www.taxbuzz.com/blog): Favorite opening of the week: “When a young adult first starts working for a traditional employer, they are almost always shocked by how much of the paycheck they had anticipated is missing, withheld by their employer…” What to tell those who thought self-employment was the magic answer, at least in terms of taxes.
• Intuit ProConnect (http://taxprocenter.proconnect.intuit.com/): One of the tough choices that tax and accounting professionals need to make for their firms is how to structure their business model to help ensure profitability. Imagine the possibilities with bundled services.
• Mahany Law (https://www.mahanyertl.com/blog/): How do you sue for ID theft?
• Turbotax (https://blog.turbotax.intuit.com/): How come tax tips seem to only come at the end of the year, when everyone is scrambling to get a few more deductions before the calendar flips? Here are five things your clients can do right now.

Levy loads

• National Taxpayer Advocate (https://taxpayeradvocate.irs.gov/about/nta-blog): The NTA’s targeted the most serious problems facing taxpayers, recommendations for addressing them, and how the IRS has actually responded to such problems as tax law questions, chief counsel transparency and Free File, to name a few.
• Procedurally Taxing (https://procedurallytaxing.com): A look at two cases — John Doe v. United States and a sealed case — presents greatly differing situations in which the plaintiffs sought awards for information provided to the IRS.
• IRS Mind (https://www.irsmind.com/): Is the IRS getting more serious about enforcing collection of back taxes through levies? After years of less IRS enforcement activity, the answer appears to be yes.
• Federal Tax Crimes (http://federaltaxcrimes.blogspot.com/): In United States v. Snyder, the “not-uncommon trap” of using company-withheld trust fund tax for purposes other than paying over to the IRS, and went one step further by using funds that should have been deposited to employee 401(k) plans.

Stated clearly

• Avalara (https://www.avalara.com/us/en/index.html): Economic nexus took effect in Ohio on August 1. Under the law, certain remote retailers are required to collect and remit tax on Ohio sales starting on that date, but the earliest that remote marketplace facilitators had to collect Ohio tax was September 1. As often happens with nexus, “It’s a bit confusing.”
• Taxjar (http://blog.taxjar.com/): In fact, “2019 has been a tidal wave of activity for e-commerce businesses trying to understand the complexities around sales tax.” What’s coming down the nexus pike in October?
• Boyum Barenscheer (https://myboyum.com/blog/): A reminder to your nonprofit clients that many such organizations use fundraising methods that cross state boundaries, so nonprofits may need to register in multiple jurisdictions. Keep in mind that registration requirements vary (sometimes dramatically) state to state.