In the blogs: Turning heads

Incoherent economics; TCC requirements; the remote debate; and other highlights from our favorite tax bloggers.

Turning heads

• Avalara (https://www.avalara.com/blog/en/north-america.html): Favorite opening of the week: "Not many people had heard of a non-fungible token a decade ago, yet by 2021 NFT art was selling for millions … That kind of money could turn any tax official's head."
• Wolters Kluwer (https://www.wolterskluwer.com/en/solutions/tax-accounting-us/industry-news): Proposed regulations  would require brokers to report customers' sales and exchanges of digital assets. The regs cover a range of digital assets that ignited questions and confusion, including proceeds to be reported on the spankin' new 1099-DA. 
• Tax Vox (https://www.taxpolicycenter.org/taxvox): One Republican hopeful put in a good debate performance. But he paired it with "an incoherent economic agenda."
• The Tax Times (https://www.thetaxtimes.com): A Holocaust survivor who refused to pay $8.8 million in tax penalties for failing to disclose two Swiss bank accounts has agreed to pay $6 million following settlement delays.
• HBK (https://hbkcpa.com/insights/): Will cannabis soon become "less illegal" in the eyes of the feds? And how would this affect taxation?
• Don't Mess with Taxes (http://dontmesswithtaxes.typepad.com/): Big collegiate winners on the gridiron can be big moneymakers, too, often thanks to tax breaks.
• EideBailly (https://www.eidebailly.com/taxblog): Turns out the Vikings were tax collectors that would make the IRS look like a garden club.

Because they're going to ask

• Virginia – US Tax Talk (https://us-tax.org/about-this-us-tax-blog/): The "Non-Grantor Irrevocable Complex Discretionary Spendthrift Trust" (NGICDST), a darling of promoters on social media, sounds impregnable until it smacks into IRC Sec. 643.
• AICPA Insights (https://www.aicpa-cima.com/blog): As compliance requirements for ESG loom and reporting on sustainability-related issues becomes the norm, business clients of all sizes will look to you for help.
• Tax Pro Center (https://proconnect.intuit.com/taxprocenter/): Half a dozen important pointers should a client ask for tax-exempt status.
• TaxConnex (https://www.taxconnex.com/blog-): The latest on how online selling keeps changing (see "increasing") sales tax obligations.
• Taxjar (https://www.taxjar.com/resources/blog): Mississippi and sales tax on services.
• Boyum & Barenscheer (https://www.myboyum.com/blog/): How your manufacturing clients can plan their exit strategy — bearing in mind the wrinkle of depreciation capture.
• Taxing Subjects (https://www.drakesoftware.com/blog): How you can put together your mission statement and, just as important, why you should.
• National Association of Tax Professionals (https://blog.natptax.com/): The week's "You Make the Call" looks at Josh, who last year decided to take out a reverse mortgage on his home. He used the loan funds to make substantial improvements to his home. No principal or interest payments were required on the reverse mortgage loan during the year. Josh did make a $3,000 payment: $2,000 toward the principal and $1,000 toward the accrued interest. Assuming he's otherwise eligible to itemize on Schedule A, will this interest payment be a qualified deduction?
• Taxbuzz (https://www.taxbuzz.com/blog): Why all business owners should outsource their bookkeeping.

Changes

• Sovos (https://sovos.com/blog/): Organizations that access IRS systems to file information returns need to understand how technological updates could impact their filing processes. The IRS has implemented new systems and processes for accessing their systems to file information returns, including changes to transmitter control code requirements.
• Marcum (https://www.marcumllp.com/insights): A look at the IRS pushing a tax change for high-earning retirement savers until the end of 2025.
• Palm Beach Accounting and Financial Services (https://www.pbafs.com/blog): Proposed bipartisan legislation would allow retirement plan sponsors to use annuities as a default option.
• Tax Foundation (https://taxfoundation.org/blog): Former President Trump's proposed 10% tariff would raise taxes on American consumers more than $300 billion a year — a tax increase rivaling those proposed by President Biden. 
• Mauled Again (http://mauledagain.blogspot.com/): Tough to Argue Dept.: "Every income exclusion, every deduction, and every credit (aside from credits in the true nature of a reduction on account of actual payment or prepayment of taxes) involves policy decisions and political considerations. What matters is not so much the name given to them, or to their opposites (inclusions and disallowed deductions), but whether they are wise and fit a well-designed revenue system."
• National Taxpayer Advocate (https://www.taxpayeradvocate.irs.gov/taxnews-information/blogs-nta/): Some penalties require supervisory approval before assessment by the IRS. The statute is vague, though, regarding when this approval must occur. The Taxpayer Advocate has encouraged the IRS and Congress to clarify the issue, "but our recommendation of where to draw the line is different than the IRS's approach."
• The Rosenberg Associates (https://rosenbergassoc.com/blog/): Point-counterpoint on whether remote work is, in fact, working for firms.