In the blogs: Time enough at last

IRS slowdown; relief checks and debt collectors; oil and gas reporting; and other highlights from our favorite tax bloggers.

Time enough at last

• TurboTax (https://blog.turbotax.intuit.com): What to remind them about extensions, and how this automatic one is also an extension to pay.
• Rubin on Tax (http://rubinontax.floridatax.com): Additional extensions have been granted aimed at estate and generation-skipping tax returns and payments (and certain gift tax payments and returns).
• Liberty (http://www.libertytax.com/tax-lounge): Don’t forget how this extra time also lets clients better understand recent tax law changes, including credits, deductions and tweaks to the tax bracket impacting a return.
• Taxable Talk (http://www.taxabletalk.com/): One big memory of this time will undoubtedly be the signs on the front doors of businesses and agencies. Here’s one from now the IRS: “Don’t Call Us. Don’t Expect Us to Read Your Mail for a While.”
• The Wandering Tax Pro (http://wanderingtaxpro.blogspot.com/): Oh, and the IRS is “not currently able to process individual paper tax returns.”

Out on a stim

• Don’t Mess with Taxes (http://dontmesswithtaxes.typepad.com/): The turnaround is impressive. The CARES Act that created the (so far) one-time payments to help people weather the difficulties caused by the pandemic and lock downs to control its spread became law just two weeks ago. When Washington made similar payments at the start of the Great Recession in 2008, it took about 2-½ months for the check deliveries to start.
• Bloomberg Tax (https://pro.bloombergtax.com/news-insights/): The Treasury Department and IRS are facing increasing pressure to make sure that debt collectors don’t get access to relief checks included in the federal government’s coronavirus response.
• National Association of Tax Professionals (https://blog.natptax.com/): The basics to tell them about the Paycheck Protection Program.
• Sikich (https://www.sikich.com/insights/): Sole proprietors, independent contractors and the self-employed are also eligible for the PPP.
• Summing It Up (http://blog.freedmaxick.com/summing-it-up): Are small business concerns (as defined in Section 3 of the Small Business Act, 15 U.S.C. 632) required to have 500 or fewer employees to be eligible borrowers in the PPP?
• Eide Bailly (https://www.eidebailly.com/taxblog): The IRS asked taxpayers to wait for additional guidance on filing refund claims arising out of the CARES Act. For taxpayers with 2018 NOLs, the wait was brief.
• Canopy (https://www.canopytax.com/blog): The CARES Act allows for a five-year carryback of net operating losses arising in 2018, 2019 and 2020. It also allows net operating losses to offset 100 percent of income (expanded from 80-percent income offset). This means clients can carry losses back for five years potentially resulting in refunds.
• Tax Girl (https://www.forbes.com/sites/kellyphillipserb/): A look at the stimulus tool “Get My Payment,” expected to be available by this Friday. What to remind clients about entering account information.

The road back?

• Tax Policy Center (https://www.taxpolicycenter.org/taxvox): Who should pay for the economic relief from the COVID-19 crisis? Almost all — fiscal hawks and doves alike — agree this isn’t the time to think about who should pay for the recovery. The conclusion may be correct as a political matter but not as an economic one.
• Tax Foundation (https://taxfoundation.org/blog): Is now the time for a $100 billion tax increase? (Is it ever the time?) The massive debts governments are incurring to give life-support to their economies will one day leave policymakers with a poser: Raise taxes indiscriminately to pay off these debts and risk further economic depression or focus on tax policies that help rebuild the global economy. Unquestionably growth should be the top priority — but that means worldwide commitment and flexibility.

Drill downs

• Mahany Law (https://www.mahanyertl.com/blog/): Virtual Unreality Dept.: Turns out cryptocurrency laundering is a thing, too, in this case featuring a Russian named (from central casting, we guess) “Maksim Boiko,” a.k.a. “Gangass.”
• Intuit Proconnect (https://proconnect.intuit.com/taxprocenter/): A look at oil- and gas-related activities that must be reported, including the most common types of oil and gas interests and 1040 reporting for various payments and expenses.