In the blogs: Chapter and Metaverse

Corralling social media; federal tax outlook; the cannabis business; and other highlights from our favorite tax bloggers.

Chapter and metaverse

• Taxable Talk (http://www.taxabletalk.com/): A real cyberattack, from the trenches.
• National Taxpayer Advocate (https://www.taxpayeradvocate.irs.gov/taxnews-information/blogs-nta/): The time is now for the IRS to expand online offerings and convenience to taxpayers. Maybe authentication steps already taken could be a gateway?
• Avalara (https://www.avalara.com/blog/en/north-america.html): Within four years, almost a third of the world’s organizations will be selling stuff in the virtual world. What will be the tax fallout?
• CPA Growth Trends (https://www.cpagrowthtrends.com/): What firms should look for in social media management software.
• Solutions for CPA Firm Leaders (http://ritakeller.com/blog/): Two recent tech entries include when firms believe they’ll finally move completely online.
• Tax Vox https://www.taxpolicycenter.org/): As President Biden and congressional Democrats make another push to reach a compromise on a social spending, climate change and tax bill, a key issue is what they’ll do with the Child Tax Credit. The Tax Policy Center analyzed five options that show how lawmakers could partially restore the expanded 2021 version of the credit.
• Parametric (https://www.parametricportfolio.com/blog): Another look at “the long road ahead” for Biden’s tax proposals — especially given what may be yet another watershed year of midterm elections.
• AICPA Insights (https://www.aicpa.org/blog): As this niche explodes, a selection of cannabusiness-specific best practices and an overview of critical legislation.

Tough questions

• Taxjar (https://www.taxjar.com/resources/blog): What states still levy sales taxes on COVID test kits (and why)?
• Sikich (https://www.sikich.com/insights/): A handy guide to helping clients still qualify for the Employee Retention Credit.
• TaxMama (http://taxmama.com): Some of the thorniest compliance questions of the season included home offices, Series I bonds and withholdings.
• Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy (https://itep.org/category/blog/): The roundup of recent tax doings by states include a major budget agreement in Connecticut to temporarily increase the state Earned Income Tax Credit and create a new one-year CTC, and the Arizona Supreme Court’s throwing a veto referendum off the ballot that would have allowed voters to determine the fate of a new income tax.
• Tax Foundation (https://taxfoundation.org/blog): Yes, the saga of Proposition 208, Arizona’s income surtax, appears to have finally reached its conclusion. The only uncertainty remaining is the timing of the state’s transition to a flat-rate individual income tax. 
• Current Federal Tax Developments (https://www.currentfederaltaxdevelopments.com/): In Valentine v. Commissioner, the Tax Court agreed with the IRS that a disabled veteran could only exclude from income designated disability payments she received from the Veterans’ Administration, while the payments she received separately as part of her military retirement payments were taxable.
• Don’t Mess with Taxes (http://dontmesswithtaxes.typepad.com/): When U.S. residents make international moves for work, they still must file and pay tax on their overseas earnings. But Uncle Sam does grant some tax breaks to Americans living and working abroad. Here’s a look.

Manna from heaven

• Boyum & Barenscheer (https://www.myboyum.com/blog/): What to remind them about donations and deductibility.
• Gordon Law (https://gordonlawltd.com/blog/): What to remind them about their various options for shedding back taxes.
• Taxbuzz (https://www.taxbuzz.com/blog): How to comfort them in the face of an IRS tax lien notice.
• Tax Warriors (https://www.taxwarriors.com/blog): A look at recent IRS letters requesting just a teensy bit more info about investors’ Qualified Opportunity Zone doings.
• John R. Dundon II EA (http://www.johnrdundon.com/): A look at new IRS issued proposed regs to prevent methods that might be used to extend the increased basic exclusion amount for estate and gift taxes if it drops back to the lower level after the end of 2025. 
• The Tax Times (https://www.thetaxtimes.com): A prosecutor has asked a federal judge to order Paul Manafort, Donald Trump’s presidential campaign manager in 2016, to pay nearly $3 million to the U.S. government over failure to disclose foreign income hidden in over two dozen shell corps and foreign accounts. (Personally, we can hope this case gives us a chance to repeat our favorite headline of the last decade: “Manifortitude.”)
• Wolters Kluwer (https://www.wolterskluwer.com/en/solutions/tax-accounting-us/industry-news): What to remind them about crowdfunding and taxes, featuring the most truthful subhead of the week: “Form 1099-K can be confusing.”