In the blogs: Insuring against data breaches

Frictionless tax compliance; ATGs; giving up bonus depreciation and other highlights from our favorite tax bloggers.

• The Wandering Tax Pro (http://wanderingtaxpro.blogspot.com/): Blogger Robert Flach marks the mid-point of the season. (“Although the IRS has announced that actual returns filed are down from last year at this time – that is certainly not the case with me…”)
• The Income Tax School (http://www.theincometaxschool.com/blog/): Once more unto the breach: How to talk about coverage for data piracy (your data) with your insurer.
• Turbotax (http://Blog.turbotax.intuit.com): What to remind them about job-seeker deductions and refund statuses. And in the bin of news we can all use: “5 Ways to Financially De-Stress” looks at simplifying budgets and retirement, automating the important yet tedious stuff and other tips.
• TaxMama (http://taxmama.com): Think your walk-ins know “only three states actually have testing, licensing and continuing education requirements for tax professionals?” What to tell them about the credentials of you and other preparers.
• ClientWhys (http://www.clientwhys.com/blog.iml): The longest journey can start with a single click: transitioning a CPA firm from paper to the digital marketing world.
• H&R Block (http://blogs.hrblock.com/): What to remind them about new, additional deadlines on biz taxes, including for forms 1120s and 1065s.

Non-friction

• Tax Analysts (http://www.taxanalysts.org/tax-analysts-blog): When you open almost any site, increasingly ads pop up tailored to your interests – termed frictionless retailing. Is frictionless tax compliance possible?
• Tax Policy (http://taxfoundation.org/blog): A handy resource to compare the 50 states on different measures of taxing and spending, including individual and corporate income tax rates, business tax climates, excise taxes, tax burdens and state spending.
• Procedurally Taxing (http://www.procedurallytaxing.com/): The recently opened Second International Taxpayer Rights Conference, hosted by the Institute for Austrian and International Tax Law in Vienna and including government officials, scholars, and practitioners from around the world, will explore how taxpayer rights globally serve as the foundation for effective tax administration.
• Mauled Again (http://mauledagain.blogspot.com/): Fun with refunds? Not so much this season, especially for clients who depend on the now-you-see it, now-you-don’t actual mailing date. A look at a recent glitch “of unidentified origin” played havoc with the bank accounts of Massachusetts taxpayers.
• Tax Girl (http://blogs.forbes.com/kellyphillipserb): What does the history of daylight saving time have to do with tax policy? Plenty, as it turns out.
• Taxable Talk (http://www.taxabletalk.com/): ClubFed, with a bullet: The former owner of a gun store featured on 26 episodes of “American Guns” dealt in firearms without a license. Much much much much worse than that, he failed to pay his income taxes.
• Due Diligence (http://www.mahanyertl.com/mahanyertl/): In this week’s collection: “Fairness in Class Actions Bill Anything But…”; “Appeals Court Green Lights Crowe Horwath Accounting Malpractice Suit”; “Concealed or Hidden Investment Fees?”; and “My Government Whistleblower Case Was Declined, Now What?”

Fascinating reading

• Bloomberg BNA (http://www.bna.com/news/#!topic=istax&type=isblogpost): Cuts to corporate taxes figure mightily in how to fund education, health care and clean water, among other issues, in Florida. “As compared to other states controlled by Republican lawmakers and with the potential for a significant overhaul of federal corporate taxes, [the] proposed tax cuts are fairly modest.”
• Dinesen Tax (http://dinesentax.com/blog): What to tell them when you reach for an IRS Audit Technique Guide, which are “written for IRS auditors but are useful for tax pros and business owners [with] insight into how the IRS believes tax law applies to different industries. “The industries covered range from daycare providers to attorneys to the wine industry to the aerospace industry. These guides make for fascinating reading for tax nerds.”
• Taxjar (http://blog.taxjar.com/): When, where and how Amazon can and will collect sales tax. Note: “The confusion seems to lie in where the item ships from, but really what you need to worry about is where the item ships to.”

Bonus questions

• Bloomberg BNA (http://bnas.wpengine.com/): True, giving up bonus depreciation seems to run against the grain for many corporations. But the PATH Act made a major change to the special election that allows taxpayers to claim a refundable minimum tax credit if they’re willing to give up bonus depreciation.
• Tax Vox (http://taxvox.taxpolicycenter.org): Think repealing the ACA will undermine Medicare’s finances? Yes, but not as much as you might think.
• Rubin on Tax (http://rubinontax.floridatax.com/): How a taxpayer receiving and reporting income and then in a later year having to return the income item can give rise to a deduction in the later year under the Claim of Right Doctrine.
• Roth & Co. (http://rothcpa.com/blog-index/): A construction family business, corporate earnings and filings, and two brothers’ falling out: The Tax Court recently dealt with an S corporation shareholder who apparently didn’t understand not what he was getting into, but just what he was getting out of.
• IRS Tax Trouble (http://www.irstaxtrouble.com/category/tax-blog/): A plus of Subchapter S corporations is the ability to have losses flow through from the business return to the individual shareholder’s, flow-through losses capped by the shareholder’s tax basis in the S corporation stock. How Tinsley v. Commissioner recently addressed this limitation.