In the blogs: The Rona

Extensions; H.R. 6201; OICs; and other highlights from our favorite tax bloggers.

The Rona

• Rubin on Tax (http://rubinontax.floridatax.com/): Will the deadline be extended due to the coronavirus? Unprecedented on a national scale, but sure seems likely.
• Taxjar (http://blog.taxjar.com/): In the face of our new breed of natural (and endlessly reaching) disaster, a handful of states have already implemented an extension and released guidance for taxpayers. If precedent holds, more states will follow. (We didn’t know there was a precedent for this.)
• Avalara (https://www.avalara.com/us/en/index.html): Many countries have announced VAT breaks and filing extensions to bolster businesses. In the U.S., which lacks a comparable federal sales tax, individual states are starting to respond to this damned thing as well. VAT lends itself to this sort of quick action. American sales tax is nowhere near as nimble.
• Tax Warrior Chronicles (https://www.taxwarriors.com/blog): The IRS announcement of an extension of time to file seemed expected, but Treasury’s quick action to extend payment due dates was surprising. Does the IRS in fact have administrative powers to waive statutory interest under federal emergency disaster provisions without formal legislative action?
• Eide Bailly (https://www.eidebailly.com/taxblog): A look at other options the IRS has for extending the season — including for payments.

The Act

• Tax Girl https://www.forbes.com/sites/kellyphillipserb/): Highlights of the (so far House-passed) H.R. 6201, “Families First Coronavirus Response Act,” including what’s not in the bill. History in the unmaking?
• Tax Foundation (https://taxfoundation.org/blog): The 110-page long House bill has eight divisions, each detailing specific measures to provide relief to Americans affected by the public health emergency. Two critical divisions: Emergency Family and Medical Leave Expansion and Paid Sick Leave.
• Mauled Again (http://mauledagain.blogspot.com/): The current administration seems to think that cutting payroll taxes is an effective approach to deal with at least some of the economic problems caused by the spread. The White House wants to stimulate the economy or at least bail out some sectors by cutting payroll taxes. “Anyone who understands economics, taxation and tax policy knows that this approach is as ineffective as pretty much most of the other tax-cut-based economic solutions have been.”
• Boyum & Barenscheer (https://myboyum.com/blog/): A most useful model of using your blog to inform clients of what is and isn’t happening at and to your firm at this time.
• Sagenext (https://www.thesagenext.com/blog): Cybersecurity looms as a big problem during this big problem, and a closer look at a study earlier this year highlighted a significant risk. On a combined scale for U.K and U.S, a staggering 23 percent of small and midsize businesses do not prefer spending much on endpoint security.
• Solutions for CPA Firm Leaders (http://ritakeller.com/blog/): “It is a strange time for all of you working in public accounting. Of course, it is tax season. Client service must continue as usual. However, strange and unfamiliar circumstances have been layered on top of business as usual.” Hard to put it any better.

Meanwhile

• National Taxpayer Advocate (https://taxpayeradvocate.irs.gov/about/nta-blog): The Taxpayer Advocate Service looks back at two decades of providing direct communication between taxpayers and the National Taxpayer Advocate, who in turn reports directly to the IRS commissioner and to Congress.
• Procedurally Taxing (https://procedurallytaxing.com): In the 1980s, the IRS adopted self-releasing notices of federal tax lien, a form that saves the agency from having to go to all of the courthouses where it files liens and recording a release. One potential taxpayer problem: the lack of a specific piece of paper, the release, demonstrably showing the end of the lien. A look at this and other hitches involved in proof that a lien has expired.
• The Income Tax School (http://www.theincometaxschool.com/blog/): Ten social media content ideas for preparers, articles, blogs, and so on, “a necessary evil in the digital world we live in and a great way to drive traffic to your website to ultimately get clients in the door.” First requirements: creativity and writing.
• Sikich (https://www.sikich.com/insights/): When making an acquisition and onboarding a target’s workforce, your human capital management practices and processes can make or break the deal. Before you close any transaction, make sure the right policies and procedures are in place. You’ll see it can make all the difference.
• Summing It Up (http://blog.freedmaxick.com/summing-it-up): Five steps for biz-owning clients to ensure value maturation as they exit their business.

O say can you C?

• IRS Mind (https://www.irsmind.com/): The “real” cost of an offer in compromise, a program that nets “a lot of hype in the press and media, but it is rarely used.” Why so few?
• Canopy (https://www.canopytax.com/blog): First of five installments of the company’s OIC informational series, this one by a former revenue officer. (“Forty-one percent. That’s the percent of offers in compromise the IRS accepted in 2018. As a former senior revenue officer I can tell you that those acceptances weren’t based on quotas or luck — they were based on real, compelling facts and evidence…”)