News

Over 125,000 high-income people who have not filed federal tax returns since 2017 will be mailed letters advising that they must file returns or explain why they don't need to file a return, the IRS said Thursday.

New London county has received a FEMA disaster emergency declaration which allows for the postponement of certain due dates for specific tax filings and tax payments. It also allows for the deduction of casualty losses attributable to emergency declaration within the declared area.

An employee retention credit (ERC) grant is a fully refundable payroll tax credit that eligible businesses and tax-exempt organizations can claim for qualified wages paid to their employees. This credit was designed to help businesses retain their employees during periods of economic hardship during the COVID-19 pandemic. Eligible employers must meet certain criteria, such as experiencing a significant decline in gross receipts or being fully or partially shut down by a government order. The credit is claimed by amending payroll tax returns.

The Internal Revenue Service announced tax relief for individuals and businesses affected by the terrorist attacks in the State of Israel. These taxpayers now have until Oct. 7, 2024, to file various federal returns, make tax payments and perform other time-sensitive tax-related actions. In Notice 2023-71PDF, the IRS provided relief to certain taxpayers who, due to the terrorist attacks, may be unable to meet a tax-filing or tax-payment obligation, or may be unable to perform other time-sensitive tax-related actions. The IRS will continue to monitor events and may provide additional relief.

Paul N. Iannone, CPA, J.D., MST, and Danny A. Pannese, CPA/ABV/CFF, CVA, CSEP, MST, both associate professors in the Jack Welch College of Business & Technology at Sacred Heart University in Fairfield, wrote the Tax Advisor magazine cover story: 10 good reasons why LLCs should not elect to be S corporations.

A U.S. accounting firm is not prohibited by a White House executive order regarding U.S. sanctions against Russia from providing tax advisory and preparation services to the U.S. subsidiary of a Russian company in certain scenarios, according to guidance issued Thursday by Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC).

IRS Commissioner Charles Rettig updated members of the Senate Finance Committee Thursday on the Service's performance in the soon-to-be-concluded tax filing season, as well as longer-term assessments of its efforts to modernize its operations, fill staffing gaps, and improve taxpayer service and enforcement.

As part of ongoing efforts to provide additional help for people during this period, the IRS announced today the suspension of more than a dozen additional letters, including the mailing of automated collection notices normally issued when a taxpayer owes additional tax, and the IRS has no record of a taxpayer filing a tax return.

The IRS announced Wednesday in a news release the letters and notices it will not send taxpayers as it works through its backlog of unprocessed prior-year returns.

The Internal Revenue Service has a brutal backlog of unfinished tax returns from last year, which has triggered more tax-time anxiety than one could imagine for many tax filers.