The newly formed Alternative Dispute Resolution Program Management Office, an arm of the IRS Independent Office of Appeals, will work with the agency’s business operating divisions—Wage & Investment, Large Business & International, Small Business/Self-Employed, and Tax Exempt and Government Entities—to help taxpayers resolve tax disputes earlier and more efficiently, the IRS said on April 24. “This new office will revitalize existing programs and pilot new initiatives as part of IRS transformation efforts in alignment with the IRS Strategic Operating Plan,” IRS Commissioner Danie ..read more

Sovos has aligned with the Digital Business Networks Alliance (DBNAlliance) as an early member, marking a significant milestone in the initiative’s development. Processing more than 11 billion transactions each year, Sovos’ membership is a substantial show of support for the DBNAlliance’s mission to rapidly deploy a framework of standards and supporting services for seamless electronic data exchange in the U.S., across the Atlantic and globally.   The DBNAlliance Exchange Framework, rooted in the open standards first launched in Europe and now embraced by governments and industries world ..read more

A new bill recently introduced by lawmakers in both the House of Representatives and the Senate would improve the IRS’s math error procedures—a power used by the agency to quickly adjust a taxpayer’s federal income tax return if it contains a simple mistake or clerical error. Sens. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) and Bill Cassidy (R-LA) introduced the Internal Revenue Service Math and Taxpayer Health (IRS MATH) Act on April 18, with Reps. Brad Schneider (D-IL) and Randy Feenstra (R-IA) introducing the same bill in the House. According to the office of the Taxpayer Advocate Service, the IRS issue ..read more

By Melissa Angell, Inc. (TNS) The IRS is cautioning taxpayers to be aware of its so-called “Dirty Dozen” list. Each year, the IRS puts out a list that compiles prevalent schemes against taxpayers. The list serves as a reminder to remain vigilant about tax scams not only during tax season, but all year long. Taxpayers should take note, given the uptick in problems seen in recent years: The IRS received 294,138 cases of tax-related identity theft during fiscal year 2023, up from the 92,631 cases seen in FY 2019. “Scammers are relentless in their attempts to obtain sensitive fin ..read more

By Michael Bernard. The domestic sales tax landscape in the United States has been in a constant state of flux over the last decade. Myriad circumstances including a lagging economy, restrictions around COVID-19, shrinking sales tax bases and reductions in federal aid for state and local governments have all led to 2023 seeing a 10-year high for sales tax rate changes. In fact, the 2023 Vertex End-of-Year Sales Tax Rates and Rules report shows that a total of 444 sales tax rate changes took place across all U.S. state and local jurisdictions. Beyond that, the total number of rate changes as w ..read more

By Leada Gore, al.com (TNS) Most people would snap up a job with pay of $100,000 a year. But bringing that amount home will require good deal more income, according to a recent analysis. GoBankingRates.com looked at how much you need to earn in each state to actually bring home $100,000 a year. The analysis accounts for average federal income taxes and withholdings for Social Security and Medicare, as well as state and local taxes. All those deductions combined can turn a six-figure salary into a take-home pay of five figures, the analysis showed. In Alabama, the analysis sho ..read more

The IRS on Friday posted on its website the highly anticipated draft Form 1099-DA, a new tax form that cryptocurrency brokers will begin using next year to report digital asset transactions. The tax agency teased the forthcoming tax form last August when it issued proposed regulations that would require brokers to report sales and exchanges of digital assets by customers. “These proposed regulations are designed to help end confusion involving digital assets and provide clear information and reporting certainty for taxpayers, tax professionals, and others,” IRS Commissioner Danny We ..read more

By Maya T. Prabhu, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution (TNS) More than 36,000 Georgians used a new “unborn dependents” deduction in 2022, lowering their taxable income by about $109 million, state officials say. The new deduction is the result of Georgia’s 2019 abortion law, which allows expectant parents to claim an embryo or fetus as a dependent on their taxes. Georgia is the only state known to have that kind of deduction. The exemption for 2022 was worth $3,000 per embryo or fetus, as it is for other minor dependents, which results in about a $170 tax benefit. Only people who were pregnant ..read more

It’s Tax Day, so there’s no better time for the IRS to pat itself on the back for a job well done as filing season for most Americans comes to a close. Compared to last year, the IRS answered more than 1 million additional taxpayer phone calls during the 2024 tax season, helped over 170,000 more people in-person, and saw 75 million more visits to IRS.gov, mainly due to the agency’s new and expanded Where’s My Refund? tool, according to statistics released on Monday. And none of this would’ve happened without the funding the IRS received from 2022’s Inflation Reduction Act, said Commissioner D ..read more

The American Institute of CPAs has expressed its strong support of H.R. 8007, the Disaster Tax Lookback Parity Act of 2024, in a letter to Representatives George Murphy (R-NC) and Jimmy Panetta (D-CA), who are original sponsors of the bill. Taxpayers impacted by disasters typically do not have the benefit of the lookback period for claiming credits and refunds being aligned with a postponed return filing due date, which this legislation would provide for all federally declared disasters. The legislation provides relief similar to recommendations previously submitted to Congress by the AICPA ..read more