In the blogs: Out with the bull

New year, new priorities; advisory service roadblocks; GM sues Frisco; and other highlights from our favorite tax bloggers.

Out with the bull

Keller Advisors (https://ritakeller.com/wordpress/): Here are more than a dozen 2024 resolutions for your firm. Pick a few and stick to them.
Tax Pro Center (https://accountants.intuit.com/taxprocenter/): Members of Intuit’s Tax Council share their practice resolutions, including “a dollar- and time-efficient professional and personal life,” “not taking anyone’s bull anymore” and “deleting as much as possible.”
Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy (https://itep.org/category/blog/): The year may be new, but state lawmakers seem to have the same old resolution: slashing state income taxes.
Boyum & Barenscheer (https://www.myboyum.com/blog/): Another look at who must report beneficial ownership information.
Palm Beach Accounting and Financial Services (https://www.pbafs.com/blog): A handy-dandy checklist for clients (or for you) considering early retirement.

Rules re-defined

Taxable Talk (http://www.taxabletalk.com/): Of crypto, gambling and the 8300.
Don’t Mess with Taxes (http://dontmesswithtaxes.typepad.com/): How fast the IRS turns around returns and kicks out a refund is, to quote Capt. Barbossa of “Pirates of the Caribbean,” “More guidelines than actual rules.”
Procedurally Taxing (https://www.taxnotes.com/procedurally-taxing): When a Tax Court petition absolutely, positively didn’t get there in time.
Taxing Subjects (https://www.drakesoftware.com/blog): The IRS has announced new penalty relief of some $1 billion to individuals, businesses, and tax-exempts who didn’t receive automated collection reminder notices during the pandemic.
Current Federal Tax Developments (https://www.currentfederaltaxdevelopments.com/): The IRS will no longer uphold the stance outlined in Private Letter Ruling 201647001, the issue being the determination of gift (and possible subsequent estate) tax consequences of modifying an intentionally defective grantor trust.

Nagging questions

Tax Vox (https://www.taxpolicycenter.org/taxvox): A recent hearing of the House Ways and Means Committee’s Subcommittee on Tax Policy brought attention to an important topic: How can the Tax Code spur economic growth while sharing the gains broadly? Kids are part of the answer.
Canopy (https://www.getcanopy.com/blog): Favorite opening of the week, regarding mental sabotage to providing value-added services: “How can I provide advisory services if I don’t even know what they are? What if I give the wrong advice? What if I get put into jail for advice I didn’t even know was wrong? What if aliens invade and destroy the planet because I didn’t know that short-term rentals are depreciated over 39 years and not 27.5?” You get the idea. Here’s how to plow ahead anyway.
Sovos (https://sovos.com/blog/): A case recently filed in the Illinois Independent Tax Tribunal by PetMeds Express re-opens the million-dollar question: Can a taxpayer win a constitutional argument against economic nexus?
National Association of Tax Professionals (https://blog.natptax.com/): This week’s “You Make the Call” looks at Cliff, a furniture salesman who each year receives a W-2 from his employer. When he sells a certain number of furniture pieces at the store, he also earns an incentive bonus from the manufacturer, which is reported to him on a 1099-MISC. Should this 1099 income be reported on a Schedule C as self-employment income?
Mauled Again (http://mauledagain.blogspot.com/): Another favorite opening: “Those who practice tax end up dealing with everything in life, not just meal exclusions, medical expense deductions, and similar transactions, but also the definition of fuels.”