CARES changes; payroll or not payroll; what to think of the IRS; and other highlights from our favorite tax bloggers.

A marvelous modern age

• Taxable Talk (http://www.taxabletalk.com/): It Should Happen to Them Dept.: “When the IRS Adds a Digit…” relates the merry mix-up of finding an extra numeral in a direct-deposited federal refund just as the IRS isn’t answering its phones.
• Canopy (https://www.canopytax.com/blog): Benefits of modernizing your firm can extend beyond client satisfaction and cooperation — all the way to your own “quality of life.”
• Taxjar (http://blog.taxjar.com/): Now that online has replaced Mr. Postman, this question may become more important than ever to more clients than ever: Do marketplace sellers need to keep their sales tax permits in states that have marketplace facilitator laws?
• National Association of Tax Professionals (https://blog.natptax.com/): Could your practice use its own R2-D2? Definitely. Will AI soon find its place in all levels of accounting firms? As surely as the unbelievable tends to come true.
• National Taxpayer Advocate (https://taxpayeradvocate.irs.gov/about/nta-blog): When is a superseding return better than an amended one?
• TaxProf (http://taxprof.typepad.com/taxprof_blog/): A look at Larry Summers, past, present and perhaps future tax progressive.

Who CARES

• Don’t Mess with Taxes (http://dontmesswithtaxes.typepad.com/): Best coronavirus tax moves, plus what states tax unemployment and CARES changes to charitable contribution rules.
• Summing It Up (http://blog.freedmaxick.com/summing-it-up): Timing for several important provisions of the Opportunity Zones program have been extended due to the pandemic, including deadlines, disaster impacts and working capital safe harbor.
• Sikich (https://www.sikich.com/insights/): Certain requirements normally accompanying Small Business Administration-guaranteed loans were waived under the CARES Act, including the “credit elsewhere requirement” that certified that the credit was unavailable without SBA help.
• Wolters Kluwer (http://news.cchgroup.com/): The Securities and Exchange Commission is providing temporary, conditional relief for established smaller companies affected by COVID-19 that may look to meet funding needs through a Regulation Crowdfunding offering.
• Eide Bailly (https://www.eidebailly.com/taxblog): How forgiveness under the Paycheck Protection Program will cost a few of the new, favorite deductions.

Being contrary

• Bloomberg Tax (https://pro.bloombergtax.com/news-insights/): Trump has fixed his sights on getting a payroll tax cut in the next coronavirus stimulus bill, but it’s unclear whether he can get Republicans — much less Democrats, though we’re pretty sure what the answer’s going to be there — to go along with such a high-cost, low-impact item.
• Rubin on Tax (http://rubinontax.floridatax.com): Nonresident alien individuals present in the U.S. for too many days in a calendar year may be classified as residents for federal income tax purposes under the substantial presence test. If such individuals are stuck in the U.S. due to medical conditions, those days of presence may be excluded in making the days computations pursuant to statutory provisions. Does this exception apply to these people in the pandemic?
• Tax Policy Center (https://www.taxpolicycenter.org/taxvox): Did the Treasury Department’s decision to put President Trump’s name on the stimulus checks slow the mailing of those checks? “Of course it did, despite administration claims to the contrary.”
• IRS Mind (http://www.irsmind.com/blog/): Each year, the IRS surveys taxpayers to understand attitudes on various issues: What motivates taxpayers to comply with the tax laws? Whose advice do they value the most when dealing with their taxes? What is their opinion of the IRS? The results.

Foreign affairs

• Federal Tax Crimes (http://federaltaxcrimes.blogspot.com/): In United States v. Green, the court denied a motion to dismiss, holding that an FBAR willful penalty survived the death of the person penalized and that the government’s complaint adequately alleged willfulness.
• Tax Foundation (https://taxfoundation.org/blog): A recent report outlines to what extent OECD countries rely on various tax revenue sources. Turns out property taxes don’t figure too big.