Lee B

"The report, from the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration, also found that the processing delays caused by the closure of the IRS’s Tax Processing Centers in April 2020 led to the service assessing numerous incorrect failure-to-pay penalties (211) and incorrect estimated tax penalties (1,256). TIGTA also noted that systemic payment processing limitations also caused problems: IRS systems can only process payments received within the last 30 days, but when TPCs were reopened in June 2020, many payments already exceeded that limit, and the IRS did not revise that limit until October 2020 – because it did not realize that it could. ACCOUNTING TODAY "The backlog of returns, correspondence, and other types of work resulting from the pandemic has and will continue to have a significant impact on the associated business taxpayers," the report indicated. The report suggested that the backlog could have been reduced by have more payments redirected to IRS lockbox sites; most payments already do, but over 6.9 million payments worth more than $37.6 billion went through TPCs in 2020. TIGTA recommended that the commissioner of the IRS Wage and Investment Division correct the inappropriate penalties, and look into the possibility of sending more payments to lockbox sites. The IRS agreed with both recommendations, and said that it had begun making corrections to the incorrect penalties, and had updated its lockboxes to be able to process additional notices. It did note, however, that it would not be possible for payments received in field offices to be directed to lockbox site."

In addition there were also 281,000 unprocessed business tax returns according to the TIGTA Report

My understanding is that the exempt income should be included in the "current year net income" line. If it is not then it should be on the "Other Increase" line.

If I was preparing this return, the only place I would enter it is on Line 6 Schedule M-1.

During my 45 years as a professional accountant, I have been involved with several adversarial audits with aggressive auditors. However I don't ever remember being subject to scorn or feeling intimidated. In fact the two most aggressive audits I was ever involved with were not tax audits. The first was an Employment Tax Audit where the auditor was determined to prove than one or more of my client's 1099 subcontractors were in fact employees. This auditor didn't back off until his supervisor stepped in and told him to wrap up the audit and move on. The second was a Workers Compensation Audit where the auditor was determined to prove that several of my client's employees were performing work that should be classified in a higher cost class code. This auditor actually went to my client's facilities and followed the employees around to see what kind of work they actually were doing. This auditor ended up prevailing which cost my client an additional $ 6.000.00 in Workers Comp Fees.

Well said, Sara

Once the last 1065 is filed the PTS Entity ceases to exist. Since EINs are not transferable, the disregarded Enitity will need to obtain a new EIN. "The IRS cannot cancel your EIN. Once an EIN has been assigned to a business entity, it becomes the permanent Federal taxpayer identification number for that entity. Regardless of whether the EIN is ever used to file Federal tax returns, the EIN is never reused or reassigned to another business entity. The EIN will still belong to the business entity and can be used at a later date, should the need arise. If you receive an EIN but later determine you do not need the number (the new business never started up, for example), the IRS can close your business account. To close your business account, send us a letter that includes the complete legal name of the entity, the EIN, the business address and the reason you wish to close your account. If you have a copy of the EIN Assignment Notice that was issued when your EIN was assigned, include that when you write to us at: Internal Revenue Service Cincinnati, Ohio 4599"

Well Tom, that is the thing about opinions, everyone has one. However we seem to live in alternate realities.

You need to take some CPE.

Tom, You make some very valid points. I really don't get your "intimidation and fear" point. Your "accept the audit finding or else" point is really over the top. I don't fear the IRS, I want them to do their job.

i am supportive of this legislation especially since under current law the Treasury Department has to go to court and obtain a conviction in order to shut down a fraudulent preparer. However this will not halt the preparation of bad returns. My state of Oregon requires the Licensing of all Tax Preparers plus 30 hours of CPE every year. This law applies to every preparer except CPAs and Attorneys. Earlier this year I picked a new business client (Monthly Write Up, Payroll & Tax Returns). The prior preparer has been licensed since 1991, has a bigger office than mine with licensed preparers working for her. My client's 2019 1120S and 1040 were poorly prepared with a number of mistakes showing a real lack of tax knowledge. Just because you are licensed doesn't mean you are competent.

Scam, the IRS would never contact a taxpayer that way.

I think most preparers are aware that for 2021, similar to 2020, that nonitemizers will be able to deduct $300 in cash contributions. In addition MFJ will be able to deduct $600 in 2021. However, I would suspect that most preparers like me were not aware that the deduction has been moved from above the line reducing AGI to below the line thus reducing Taxable Income but not reducing AGI. Who knew?

Excerpt from the TIGTA Report: "For its report, TIGTA analyzed all the S corporation returns received by the IRS between 2016 and 2018, looking for returns where the profits exceeded $100,000, there was a single shareholder, and no officer’s compensation was claimed. It found the IRS didn’t select 266,095 of such returns for a field examination. The analysis found that single-shareholder owners made profits of $108 billion and took $69 billion in the form of a distribution, without reporting they received officer’s compensation for which they would have needed to pay Social Security and Medicare taxes. TIGTA estimated 266,095 tax returns may not have reported nearly $25 billion in compensation, allowing business owners to avoid paying approximately $3.3 billion in FICA taxes." Well I guess Audit Roulette still works

The FFCRA does not include SS

Given all the late and retroactive tax law changes for which the IRS couldn't reprogram their computers, I am not surprised. The millions of tax returns hung up in processing which need "eyes on" manual intervention makes it a certainty that there will be a number of refunds and balance due amounts that are not right.

Here is an in depth analysis of all the states ( almost 20 states now ) that have passed a PTE Tax: https://www.bdo.com/insights/tax/state-and-local-tax/five-more-states-enact-pte-tax-elections#:~:text=On July 19%2C 2021%2C Oregon enacted S.B.&text=An eligible PTE%2C which is,through business alternative income tax.”

Copied from Accounting Today: "Following enactment of the state and local tax deduction limitation in the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act in 2017, many states began looking for structures to circumvent the limit. These included trying to shift to a deductible charitable contribution, shifting to a payroll tax, and shifting to an entity-level tax. The Internal Revenue Service took a dim view of the charitable contribution approach, and the payroll tax approach appeared to be too complicated to implement. However, the entity-level tax has been blessed by the IRS, leading to a stampede among states to implement that approach. Notice 2020-75, issued Nov. 9, 2020, states that the IRS intends to issue proposed regulations clarifying that state and local income taxes imposed on and paid by a partnership or an S corporation are allowed as a deduction by that entity in computing its taxable income or loss in the year of payment. The notice also clarifies that the rule applies in a tax year ending after Dec. 31, 2017, covering the period back to implementation of the state and local tax deduction limit."

The key difference is that the CT PTE Tax is mandatory, while I believe the other state's PTE Taxes are voluntary.

Yes, there are at least 16 states that have passed a PTE Tax law now. It is a SALT workaround that actually does work. but only for S Corp owners and PTS partners.

Oregon has passed a very similar bill which goes into effect the beginning of next year. It allows PTEs to pay state income tax and then the owners/partners get an equivalent credit on their personal tax return. While Oregon hasn't written any rules or regulations yet, so far it seems like a win- win. I plan to use it with my own business.

Reading this post definitely reinforces my decision not to deal with divorced clients.

How do I get rid of the "Enable Push Notifications" popup? Every time I sign it pops up

"According to the IRS website, as of July 31, there were approximately 13.8 million unprocessed individual income tax returns. This is down from 15.6 million as of July 17, so the backlog is being chipped away slowly but surely,” said James McGrory, a CPA and shareholder at Drucker & Scaccetti in Philadelphia."

When I was still using ATX, I never had a problem with using the Reload Forms Utility Function. Of course you should save the return before you do it. Perhaps someone who currently uses ATX can chime in.