In the blogs: Hot topics

Better enforcement; for fans of tax crime; partner sabbaticals please; and other highlights from our favorite tax bloggers.

Hot topics

• Taxbuzz (https://www.taxbuzz.com/blog): Partisan bickering over tax rates is a constant, but when five of the nation’s former Treasury secretaries agree on something, it’s time to take notice. In response to reports of enormous disparities between taxes owed and taxes collected, Lawrence Summers, Robert Rubin, Henry Paulson, Jacob Lew and Timothy Geithner all called for Congress to approve President Biden’s proposed budget to beef up the IRS to help close the Tax Gap.
• Tax Vox (https://www.taxpolicycenter.org/): Remote work and taxation are two of the hottest intertwined topics of the moment, urgently in need of decisive guidance. So the Supreme Court has punted on a determination.
• Sikich (https://www.sikich.com/insights/): As the world reopens, mask mandates disappear and social distancing regulations fade away, it’s time for companies to revisit events. But the event strategy of the past is not the answer moving forward.
• Tax Pro Center (https://proconnect.intuit.com/taxprocenter/): Nothing lasts forever — and the Internal Revenue Code is Exhibit A. Increasingly, for budgetary and other reasons, Congress enacts tax provisions on a temporary basis. Sometimes these provisions are extended again and again and eventually become fixed in the code, but others are true one-shots. Here are some tax breaks that will soon be history.
• Boyum & Barenscheer (https://myboyum.com/blog/): What to remind them about recent changes to the Child Tax Credit.
• Tax Warriors (https://www.taxwarriors.com/): The IRS finally released the much-anticipated child tax portals and will start making advance payments to those who qualify. What to tell clients about the agency’s new tools to help with receiving the credit.
• The Tax Times (https://www.thetaxtimes.com): Your bigger and better IRS — now with improved enforcement!
• Procedurally Taxing (https://procedurallytaxing.com): Yet another TIGTA report has examined how the IRS fumbles the opportunity to make restitution-based assessments in a number of criminal cases and that it makes the assessments much slower than the target dates for doing so.
• Avalara (https://www.avalara.com/us/en/blog.html): The mid-year look at the latest in sales tax changes. A slow time for this field it is not.
• John R. Dundon II EA (http://johnrdundon.com/): Colorado sales tax nexus and destination-sourcing rules have gotten a bump from the state’s General Assembly adopting rules that extend the small-business exception to the requirements.

Piggy piggy

• Bloomberg Tax (https://pro.bloombergtax.com/news-insights/): An unpleasant surprise for wealthy Americans was lurking halfway through a 114-page document released by the U.S. Treasury late last month. Technical provisions in the proposal (unmentioned when President Biden presented his plans to raise taxes on the rich) could disrupt or dismantle some of the most popular ways the super-wealthy have legally avoided taxes for decades.
• Federal Tax Crimes (http://federaltaxcrimes.blogspot.com/): A recent article is likely of interest to tax crimes fans: “How Insufficient Enforcement Led to Prevalent Tax Evasion and Contributed to American Inequality” expands on the recent publication of IRS data on the very wealthy.
• TaxProf Blog (http://taxprof.typepad.com/taxprof_blog/): And while we’re on the subject, “Lord of the Roths: How Tech Mogul Peter Thiel Turned a Retirement Account for the Middle Class Into a $5-Billion Tax-Free Piggy Bank.”

Clear responsibilities

• Sovos (https://sovos.com/blog/?region=united-states): What drives change to technology systems, specifically for enterprise resource planning? The biggest reasons, according to a recent survey.
• Summing It Up (http://blog.freedmaxick.com/summing-it-up): In evaluating a potential business acquisition, the nature and magnitude of the business’ cash flows figure large. A look at the part of due diligence that relates to normalizing adjustments to cash flows, including some of the more common normalizing adjustments.
• National Association of Tax Professionals (https://blog.natptax.com/): This week’s “You Make the Call” looks at Mariana and Luis, a couple who contribute $600 cash annually to their favorite charity and who wonder if they may take the above-the-line deduction for the $600 on their 2020 return filed married filing jointly.
• Turbotax (https://blog.turbotax.intuit.com): Nothing is certain but death and taxes. How credit scores could join that trio and five ways clients can better theirs.
• The Tax Professional (http://thetaxprofessional.blogspot.com/): “It is clearly [now] the responsibility of the taxpayer to keep separate track of acquisition debt and home equity debt, going back to the original purchase of the mortgage. The bank or mortgage company will not do it, and it is not our responsibility. But I do not know of a single taxpayer who actually does this.” What do fellow preparers ask of clients when it comes to mortgage interest? The blogger wants to know.
• Canopy (https://www.canopytax.com/blog): Good follow-up varies for the different stages clients are at, but it’s vital always that your client feels like you’re serving their evolving needs. Three keys to smarter client follow-up at all stages.
• Solutions for CPA Firm Leaders (http://ritakeller.com/blog/): A sample sabbatical policy for accounting firm partners that will make you smile. First step: “We take a vote to decide which partners we’d prefer not seeing around the office...”
• Surgent Income Tax School (http://www.theincometaxschool.com/blog/): Sometimes businesses are afraid to offer a guarantee, thinking too many clients will take advantage. But the number of clients that decide not to accept a return prepared by a reputable tax firm is insignificant. What your practice can gain by offering a guarantee.