In the blogs: Same stuff, different year

Swag taxes; audit ROI; your best reading for 2024; and other highlights from our favorite tax bloggers.

Same stuff, different year

• Eide Bailly (https://www.eidebailly.com/taxblog): Leading tax writers in Congress seek to release a proposal that would allow domestic R&D expensing (not foreign), expand the 163 (j)-interest deduction, bump bonus depreciation to 100% and enlarge the Child Tax Credit. Other measures could be included, like enhancing the tax credit for building low-income housing. But remember, the current Congress is the same as last year.
• Tax Vox (https://www.taxpolicycenter.org/taxvox): From three progressive senators and a representative grilling Intuit on the research and experimentation credit to the Republican Ways and Means chair doubling down on a tax-related warning to certain universities he doesn’t like, lawmakers just keep targeting the tax breaks of those they disagree with.
• Turbotax (https://blog.turbotax.intuit.com): As the season commences for show-biz awards, the Golden Globes has revealed that their swag bag this year is estimated to be worth more than half a mil. Congrats “Oppenheimer,” Ali Wong, Jeremy White and all the others. Richly deserved. Speaking of which, now what do you tell the taxman?
• Sikich (https://www.sikich.com/insights/): A review of the recent IRS voluntary disclosure program for sketchy Employee Retention Credit claims. Barely two more months to go before the deadline, by the way.
• University of Illinois Tax School Blog (https://taxschool.illinois.edu/blog/): Along with a quick review of how we got into this mess of bad ERC claims.
• Tax Foundation (https://taxfoundation.org/blog): Do corporate tax cuts boost workers’ wages? Depends. A recent paper looks at 24 months’ effects on workers after passage of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act. Is this long enough?
• Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy (https://itep.org/category/blog/): “Snoozing on the need to improve on their regressive tax codes,” lawmakers in Georgia, Iowa and Utah still push to slash income taxes, which predominantly benefits upper-income households.
• TaxProf Blog (http://taxprof.typepad.com/taxprof_blog/): Recent analysis of audits shows that an additional $1 spent auditing taxpayers above the 90th income percentile yields more than $12 in revenue, while audits of below-median income taxpayers yield $5. “On average, $1 in audit spending initially raises $2.17 in revenue. Audits of high-income taxpayers are more costly, but the additional revenue raised more than offsets the costs.”
• Wolters Kluwer (https://www.wolterskluwer.com/en/solutions/tax-accounting-us/industry-news): The IRS has released draft instructions for the 2023 Schedules K-2 and K-3. A look at how the drafts keep the “domestic filing exception” introduced in 2022 but do make a few changes for 2023.

Accommodations

• Armanino (https://www.armanino.com/articles/): As cash-rich companies again ignite the M&A market, smart due-diligence for buyers includes a range of tax questions, including the target company’s tax and transaction structure, historical tax compliance and any stray exposures. Not to mention how current and projected tax liabilities will be reflected in the M&A deal.
• Meyers Brothers Kalicka (https://www.mbkcpa.com/insights): Some of the credits your small-biz clients might notch up if they revamp premises with specific accommodations for disabled individuals — even to the point of halving the cost of reno.
• Procedurally Taxing (https://www.taxnotes.com/procedurally-taxing): How the Tax Court’s holding that a settlement officer’s failure to verify supervisory approval of penalties was not an abuse of discretion since the taxpayers had agreed to imposition of the penalties in a prior case.

Bookkeeping

• Canopy (https://www.getcanopy.com/blog): The nine must-read books for accountants this year (one of these authors is probably a different Peter Frampton than we remember).
• National Association of Tax Professionals (https://blog.natptax.com/): This week’s “You Make the Call” looks at Joey, who filed a joint return on a 1040 for 2022 with taxable income of $45,000. His itemized deductions were $26,350, mostly medical expenses. The standard deduction that he could have claimed was $25,900, so his total itemized deductions exceeded the standard by $450. In 2023, he recovered $2,100 of those itemized deductions when insurance reimbursed some of his expenses. The amount recovered does not exceed the deduction claimed on Schedule A. What is the amount of taxable income he must report in 2023, the year of recovery?
• Virginia – U.S. Tax Talk (https://us-tax.org/about-this-us-tax-blog/): How do the rules of qualified dividend income apply to controlled foreign corporations?
• Global Taxes (https://www.globaltaxes.com/blog.php): The holder of a green card just won a FBAR decision that could affect many similar taxpayers. 

The clock is Tiking