Author: Frank Carnahan

How to Confirm the Identity of an IRS Field Revenue Officer If They Come Knocking at Your Door 2020-02-13 The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) has begun conducting face-to-face meetings with individual and business taxpayers as a part of a special compliance effort entitled Revenue Officer Compliance Sweep (ROCS). This is an extremely high priority effort where IRS field revenue officers (RO’s) will be working to resolve compliance issues, including missing…

IRS Announces Large Print Form 1040-SR for Seniors 2020-02-05 The Bipartisan Budget Act of 2018 required the IRS to create a tax form for seniors. Taxpayers age 65 or older now have the option to use Form 1040-SR , U.S. Tax Return for Seniors. Form 1040-SR, when printed, features larger font and better readability. Seniors can use the new form to file their 2019 federal income tax return, which is…

Tax simplification for private foundations 2020-02-04 The Taxpayer Certainty and Disaster Tax Relief Act of 2019 reduced the 2% excise tax on net investment income of private foundations to 1.39%, and repealed the 1% special rate that applied if the private foundation met certain distribution requirements.  The changes are effective for taxable years beginning after December 20, 2019.

Retroactive Repeal of Unrelated Business Taxable Income – Qualified Transportation Fringe Benefits aka "parking lot tax" 2020-02-04 The Taxpayer Certainty and Disaster Tax Relief Act of 2019 retroactively repealed Internal Revenue Code (IRC) Section 512(a)(7), which increased unrelated business taxable income by amounts paid or incurred for qualified transportation fringes. Congress had previously enacted this provision as part of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, effective for amounts paid or incurred after…

IRS Form 1023 must be submitted electronically online starting January 1, 2020 2020-02-04 Effective January 31, 2020, applications for recognition of exemption on Form 1023 must be submitted electronically online at www.pay.gov. The IRS will provide a grace period during which the IRS will continue to accept paper versions of Form 1023 (Rev. 12-2017). The user fee for Form 1023 will remain $600 for 2020. Applicants must pay the user fee…

IRS adds new downloadable income tax withholding assistant 2019-12-18 This new spreadsheet-based tool is designed to help employers easily transition to the redesigned withholding system (no longer based on withholding allowances), which goes into effect on Jan. 1. It does this by helping them easily implement new income-tax withholding requests from employees who fill out the completely redesigned 2020 Form W-4 , Employee's Withholding Certificate.

Taxpayers in private debt collection can now make payments with direct debit 2019-11-26 Taxpayers in the private debt collection program now have a new option for paying what they owe by choosing a pre-authorized direct debit. They can use this to make one payment or a series of payments toward their federal tax debt. Taxpayers should be aware of scammers and identity thieves pretending to be from a private collection…

2019 Missouri Personal Income Tax Changes Announced Missouri Department of Revenue, October 2019 Tax Rates Missouri indexed the individual income tax brackets for inflation, and for 2019, the rates are: Missouri taxable income $0-$104: $0$105 - $1,053: 1.5% of Missouri taxable income$1,054 - $2,106: $16 plus 2.0% of excess over $1,053$2,107 - $3,159: $37 plus 2.5% of excess over $2,106$3,160 - $4,212: $63 plus 3.0% of excess over $3,159$4,213 -…

IRS warns Taxpayers to be on the lookout for a new version of SSN scam 2019-10-24 In the latest twist on a scam scammers claim to be able to suspend or cancel the victim’s SSN in another attempt by con artists to frighten people into returning ‘robocall’ voicemails. Scammers may mention overdue taxes in addition to threatening to cancel the person’s SSN. If taxpayers receive a call threatening to suspend…

IRS reminds employers about the benefits of using EFTPS to monitor payroll tax responsibilities 2019-10-24 A recent IRS news release reminds employers that the Electronic Federal Tax Payment System ("EFTPS") has features that can help them in meeting their tax obligations, whether they prepare and submit payroll taxes themselves or if they hire a payroll service provider ("PSP") to do it on their behalf. Anyone can use EFTPS. The service is offered free…