News

The IRS, which recently made business tax accounts accessible to millions of new entities, said Thursday that it’s adding new features to the accounts and expanding others.

The Internal Revenue Service today updated frequently asked questions about the deductions for qualified overtime compensation.

The Department of the Treasury and the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) issued Notice 2026-28 PDF, providing guidance on the employer credit for paid family and medical leave (PFML) under the Working Families Tax Cuts (WFTC). The WFTC makes permanent and expands eligibility and coverage for employers offering PFML benefits to employees.

The Senate Finance Committee on Thursday approved the Taxpayer Assistance and Service (TAS) Act, which the AICPA said will improve tax administration and reduce burdens on both taxpayers and preparers.

Citing the increase in the cost of fuel, the IRS has set a higher optional standard mileage rate used to calculate the deductible costs of operating an automobile for business for the remainder of 2026.

The AICPA Professional Ethics Executive Committee (PEEC) approved revisions to the “Tax Services” interpretation (ET sec. 1.295.160) of the AICPA Code of Professional Conduct, completing a multiyear project to strengthen and clarify independence requirements when members provide tax advisory and tax planning services to attest clients.

The IRS issued final regulations (T.D. 10051) Wednesday designating certain arrangements purporting to be charitable remainder annuity trusts (CRATs) as listed transactions, requiring disclosure by material advisers and certain participants in the transactions.

The Internal Revenue Service and Security Summit partners today launched the summer “Protect Your Clients; Protect Yourself” campaign, a five-week series highlighting practical steps tax professionals can take to protect client data, their businesses, and themselves from evolving tax-related identity theft threats.

The Internal Revenue Service today announced a new automatic process to provide penalty relief for taxpayers with a history of filing and paying on time, reducing the need for them to request assistance.

On March 19, the U.S. Treasury released the Financial Report of the United States Government for Fiscal Year 2025. For CPAs, the document should feel familiar: audited, accrual-based financial statements accompanied by MD&A, notes, required supplementary information, and an independent auditor’s report. Yet despite its scope and significance, the report remains largely unknown and absent from professional discourse, financial analysis, and policy makers’ conversations.

The Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) today published a proposed Accounting Standards Update (ASU) intended to improve investment company financial reporting by amending how investment companies measure the fair value of an equity security that is subject to a contractual sale restriction. Stakeholders are encouraged to review and provide comments on the proposed ASU by July 17, 2026.

The IRS on Monday issued Rev. Proc. 2026-25, which provides a gift tax reporting safe harbor for individual donors who make one or more contributions to Trump accounts under Sec. 530A and satisfy certain conditions.

The IRS believes it did not send any CP53E notices erroneously and is seeking the AICPA’s help in uncovering any examples of taxpayers who should not have received one, an AICPA tax leader said last week.

The IRS Office of Professional Responsibility (OPR) issued guidance outlining how existing Treasury Circular 230 rules apply to tax practitioners’ use of artificial intelligence (AI), emphasizing that long-standing duties such as due diligence, competence, and confidentiality remain unchanged.

National Taxpayer Advocate Erin M. Collins today released her Fiscal Year 2027 Objectives Report to Congress, highlighting a largely successful 2026 filing season in which the IRS processed nearly 139 million individual tax returns, issued more than 90 million refunds, and successfully implemented extensive tax law changes despite significant operational challenges. The report also identifies areas where taxpayers experienced refund delays and service challenges, including returns suspended during processing for additional review, delays in receiving paper refund checks, and prolonged case resolution times for victims of identity theft, while outlining the Advocate’s priority recommendations as the IRS continues to modernize its technology systems.

The Supreme Court’s decision Monday to deny certiorari in Murrin lets stand a Third Circuit holding that the Sec. 6501(c)(1) unlimited period for the assessment of tax applies when a fraudulent return is filed with the intent to evade tax, regardless of whether the intent is that of the taxpayer or another person, including the taxpayer’s return preparer.

The IRS’s outside technology advisory panel called on Congress to provide stable, multiyear funding; expand the use of artificial intelligence; and simplify tax administration. It also warned that resource constraints and complexity risk undermining recent modernization gains.

About one-fourth of callers to two IRS telephone lines during three months in 2025 did not receive quality customer service, a watchdog report dated June 10 said.

The IRS moved almost 1,200 workers to Taxpayer Services “to address critical staffing shortages and potential 2026 filing season backlogs” after more than 11,000 employees left the division as various buyouts were offered, a watchdog report said.

The IRS will merge two offices that deal with tax practitioners — one that deals with misconduct and discipline and another that administers the preparer tax identification number (PTIN) program — a move the AICPA opposed.