Taxes

In a revenue ruling issued Wednesday, the IRS confirms that the step-up in basis under Sec. 1014(a) does not apply to the assets held by an irrevocable grantor trust when the grantor dies if the grantor’s gross estate does not include the assets of the irrevocable trust.

The IRS reached the halfway point of its annual “Dirty Dozen” list of tax scams, advising that taxpayers be careful when choosing a preparer to handle their returns.

Pending further guidance that it intends to issue on the treatment of nonfungible tokens as collectibles, the IRS said that it will use a lookthrough analysis for determining if an NFT is a collectible.

National Taxpayer Advocate Erin Collins wrote in her blog post Thursday that Congress should allocate more money from the Inflation Reduction Act’s $80 billion budget infusion over 10 years for the IRS to taxpayer services and business systems modernization and less to enforcement and operations.

The IRS Office of Professional Responsibility issued a bulletin that reviews the Circular 230 professional responsibilities that apply to claims for the employee retention credit.

Tax practitioners have many questions about how to track and report the basis of digital assets, and no clear guidance exists. Here are tips from the AICPA Virtual Currency and Digital Assets Tax Task Force.

The Senate voted 54–42 on Thursday to approve Werfel, a former acting IRS commissioner who has served under both Democratic and Republican administrations.

The IRS announced that it will soon be able to scan paper Forms 1040 and 941 instead of inputting them by hand. The acting commissioner describes the expansion as “another milestone” in the agency’s transformation.

New guidance on required minimum distributions reporting provides relief for financial institutions that due to a change to the RMD start date rules made by the SECURE 2.0 Act, may have incorrectly provided RMD statements to IRA owners who turn 72 in 2023.

The three-day forums, last held in person in 2019, are designed specifically for CPAs and other tax professionals.