Author: Frank Carnahan

2022-03-25 TIGTA issued its March 16, 2022 report finding that the IRS has not provided taxpayers with adequate information on PPIAs on its public website or with the instructions pertaining to the form used to request an installment agreement, nor has the IRS created an effective means for taxpayers to request PPIAs or appeal rejected PPIAs as required by law. PPIAs generally accounted for less than 2 percent of the…

2022-02-22 The IRS announced a new option in the agency’s authentication system is now available for taxpayers to sign up for IRS online accounts without the use of any biometric data, including facial recognition. This is consistent with the IRS’s commitment earlier this month to transition away from the requirement for taxpayers creating an IRS online account to provide a selfie to a third-party service to help authenticate their identity.…

2022-02-09 The IRS Tax payer Advocate posted on its blog that IRS phone service was inadequate prior to the pandemic and spiraled from there, with calls reaching an all-time high and level of service (LOS) falling to an all-time low. IRS phone service was inadequate prior to the pandemic and spiraled from there, with calls reaching an all-time high and level of service (LOS) falling to an all-time low. Call…

2022-01-28 A substantail number of members of Congress sent a January 26, 2022 letter to Treasury regarding the IRS processing backlog and problems taxpayers are having with processing returns and amended returns, and dealing with IRS collections. The letter notes that: "As of December 23, 2021, the IRS continued to have a backlog of 6 million Forms 1040 (Individual Income Tax Returns) and 2.3 million amended individual tax returns. In…

2022-01-21 The IRS issued a memorandum January 14, 2020 providing guidance and notification to Appeals employees that because third-party contacts are deemed investigative actions, and Appeals employees do not perform investigative actions, third-party contacts by Appeals are prohibited and should no longer be made in connection with the determination or collection of a tax liability of a taxpayer. The interim guidance supersedes IRM 8.1.6.2, Third Party Contacts, IRM 8.1.6.2.1, Third…

2022-01-14 IR-2022-11, January 12, 2022 The report credits the IRS for performing well under difficult circumstances including COVID. The IRS implemented significant addition programs, including 478 million stimulus payments (Economic Impact Payments or "EIPs") and Advance Child Tax Credit (AdvCTC), but "[t]he imbalance between the IRS's workload and its resources has never been greater." Since fiscal year (FY) 2010, the IRS's workforce has shrunk by 17%, while its workload –…

2022-01-06 in 2021, Congress passing the Corporate Transparency Act, which requires every corporation, LLC or similar entity that meets the definition of a “Reporting Company” to make a filing with the Department of Treasury’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (“FinCEN”) identifying its beneficial owners or owners. FinCEN issued proposed regulations on this rule December 7, 2021, Notice of Proposed Rulemaking to give the public an opportunity to review and comment on…

2021-12-22 IRS Rev. Proc. 2021-52 updated Rev. Proc. 2020-54 procedures and identified circumstances for whether disclosure on a taxpayer’s income tax return for reducing penalties. The revenue procedure updates Rev. Proc. 2020-54, 2020-53 I.R.B. 1806, and identifies circumstances under which the disclosure on a taxpayer's income tax return with respect to an item or position is adequate for: reducing the understatement of income tax under Internal Revenue Code section 6662(d)…

2021-12-20 Beginning Dec. 31, 2021, the publicly available data provided by the IRS on electronically filed Forms 990 will be available solely on the TEOS webpage on IRS.gov. The IRS will no longer update the Form 990 series data on Amazon Web Services.

2021-12-10 The United States Tax Court issued a December 8, 2021, press release, following on On July 23, 2021, and August 16, 2021, press releases, regarding the significantly increased number of petitions received this 2021 year. From January 1, 2021, through November 30, 2021, the Court received 33,300 petitions. Approximately 20% of the total petitions filed were filed electronically. Electronic petitions were up to 30% in October and increased to…