News

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.

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.

According to a news release, CohnReznick will operate in an alternative practice structure following the closing of the transaction. CohnReznick LLP, a licensed CPA firm, will provide attest services, and CohnReznick Advisory LLC (which will not be a licensed CPA firm) will provide tax, advisory, and other nonattest services.

We asked the DRS to extend three deadlines from March 15, 2025 to April 15, 2025. Based on the DRS Commissioner’s authority to extend, due to statutory limitations, he was only able to extend two of the dates to April 15, 2025 as requested: Form CT-PET, Connecticut Pass-Through Entity Tax Return and Form CT-1065/CT-1120SI, Connecticut Composite Income Tax Return.

With the rising popularity of artificial general intelligence (AGI) and its potential for business transformation, there's a significant push for CPAs to leverage AI features to save time and boost profitability. While it's certainly feasible and beneficial to use AI for enhancing operational efficiency and automating routine tasks, claiming that AI can handle complex accounting and tax-related tasks, such as preparing a detailed study, is quite a stretch. Yet, I see numerous "pop-up" shops emerging, boldly asserting that AI can handle 80% or more of an R&D credit study.

The transformative leader, who is retiring on Dec. 31, guided the organization and the profession for nearly three decades.

Paul N. Iannone, CPA, J.D., MST and Danny A. Pannese, CPA/ABV/CFF, CSEP, MST, associate professors, and Benoit N. Boyer, Ph.D., retired professor, all in the Jack Welch College of Business and Technology at Sacred Heart University in Fairfield, wrote “Cleaning up intercompany debt” for the November 2024 issue of The Tax Advisor.