News

One of the most successful filing seasons in recent memory" still had a few potholes — and cutbacks at the Internal Revenue Service portend tougher seasons ahead, according to the latest report to Congress by the National Taxpayer Advocate Erin Collins.

The American Institute of CPAs (AICPA) has expressed concerns with proposals pertaining to the pass-through entity tax (PTET) state and local tax (SALT) deductions in reconciliation bills introduced in the Senate and passed House of Representatives.

Billy Long was sworn in as the 51st Commissioner of the Internal Revenue Service on June 16. Long was confirmed by the Senate on June 12.

A click on a link in an email that could have brought down Catharine Drake Madeley’s CPA firm instead caused 40 clients whose tax information was exposed in a data breach to think of her and her staff even more as trusted advisers.

The AICPA recommended 183 changes to the IRS’s 2025–2026 Priority Guidance Plan and also encouraged the agency to continue to pursue tax simplification.

The One Big Beautiful Bill Act, as passed by the House and whose revised text was released Monday by Republicans on the Senate Finance Committee, includes a number of significant tax provisions for both corporate taxpayers and nonprofits.

The Senate on Thursday voted to confirm Billy Long, a former Missouri congressman, as IRS commissioner.

In Rev. Proc. 2025-23, the IRS on Monday provided a comprehensive, updated list of changes in tax accounting methods to which the automatic change procedures in Rev. Proc. 2015-13, as subsequently modified, apply.

The IRS budget would decline 37% from fiscal year 2025 to fiscal year 2026 and the number of IRS employees would decrease 20% over the same period, according to the annual Congressional Budget Justification released by Treasury.

Eliminating the state and local tax deduction for service-based passthrough entities would “result in a tax increase for accountants throughout the country,” according to a letter addressed to leaders of the Senate Finance Committee by the AICPA and CPA societies from 53 states and jurisdictions.

Following its continued opposition to the severe limitations on the deductibility of state and local tax (SALT) for specified service trades or businesses (SSTBs) included in recent tax legislation passed by the House of Representatives, the American Institute of CPAs (AICPA) sent a second letter to leadership of the Senate Finance and House Ways & Means Committees urging modifications to troubling tax proposals in the One Big Beautiful Bill Act passed by the House and being considered by the Senate.

The Internal Revenue Service today issued its annual Data Book detailing the agency's activities during fiscal year 2024 (Oct. 1, 2023 – Sept. 30, 2024). This year’s edition marks the publication’s 30-year anniversary; the first Data Book covered fiscal years 1993 and 1994 and was available in 1995. Prior to 1993, the IRS published annual reports, which date back to 1863. The Data Book provides a fiscal year statistical overview of the agency’s operations including returns received, revenue collected, taxpayer services provided, tax returns examined (audits), efforts to collect unpaid taxes and other details about the work of the IRS.

A higher percentage of AICPA members got questions answered quickly by the IRS Practitioner Priority Service (PPS) line during the 2025 tax filing season, according to an annual survey, but they have concerns about the future of the IRS.

The IRS issued interim final and proposed regulations Friday (T.D. 10031 and REG-107459-24) lowering the user fee for the Service to issue an estate tax closing letter from $67 to $56.

President Donald Trump is pushing lawmakers to increase tax rates on some of the wealthiest Americans as a way to offset other cuts in his signature economic package.

The IRS lost 11% of its staff through voluntary separations and terminations in the first three months of 2025, and the largest percentage of those who left were revenue agents who conduct audits, a government watchdog said in a report.

The AICPA on Thursday sent a letter to the IRS with recommendations to two areas of new instructions to Form 8971, Information Regarding Beneficiaries Acquiring Property From a Decedent. The AICPA understands that Treasury and the IRS are considering updating the form instructions for the final regulations.

Michael Faulkender, who was confirmed as deputy Treasury secretary at the end of March, will serve as acting IRS commissioner — the fourth since President Donald Trump took office Jan. 20.

Treasury and the IRS, in Notice 2025-23, announced the intent to remove basis-shifting transaction-of-interest (TOI) regulations. The notice, published Thursday, also provides immediate relief from penalties under Secs. 6707A(a), 6707(a), and 6708 for any failure by participants or material advisers to file disclosure statements or maintain lists required by the regulations.

Employee stock ownership plans (ESOPs) have gained popularity among accounting firms in response to some of the profession’s biggest trends — the influx of private equity (PE), the struggle to recruit and retain staff, and the need to fund partner retirements.