State relief payments can be excluded

Earlier this year, the IRS provided clarification on the federal tax status of special payments made by 21 states in 2022 that were mainly related to the pandemic. In a nutshell, qualified taxpayers in these 21 states aren’t required to include in income their state or local relief payments because the payments were made for […]

Debt forgiveness may cause taxation

Debt forgiveness may result in taxes owed. Under federal tax law, gross income generally includes cancellation of debt (COD) income when a lender forgives all or part of a debt. One taxpayer was the sole member of a limited liability company (LLC) that defaulted on a bank line of credit. The bank filed a Form […]

Lose documents in a disaster?

How do you replace important documents after a natural disaster? If your personal and financial records have been destroyed, you may need to replace them quickly to receive federal assistance, file insurance claims and for tax purposes. Transcripts of filed tax returns can be obtained for free using “Get Transcript” on IRS.gov or by calling […]

IRS issues fraud alert

Some victims of recent natural disasters have lost their homes, vehicles and even their loved ones. But that doesn’t seem to stop fraudsters from kicking them while they’re down. The IRS warns disaster survivors to be wary of bad actors claiming to work for the government, particularly if they offer to help obtain tax refunds […]

Proposed regulations cover digital assets

The IRS and U.S. Treasury Dept. have proposed regulations “to help end confusion involving digital assets and provide clear information and reporting certainty for taxpayers [and] tax professionals,” in the words of IRS Commissioner Danny Werfel. To prevent digital assets from being used to hide taxable income, the regulations would require brokers, cryptocurrency platforms and […]

IRS addresses technical error in Secure 2.0 Act

In Notice 2023-62, the IRS addressed a technical error in the SECURE 2.0 Act that wouldn’t have allowed catch-up contributions to 401(k)s and similar plans after 2023. Generally, taxpayers age 50 or older can make these additional contributions. When Congress included a requirement in SECURE 2.0 that certain higher-income taxpayers make catch-up contributions only to […]

IRS announces two-year transition period for Secure 2.0 Act’s Roth catch-up contribution

The IRS has announced a two-year transition period in the implementation of the SECURE 2.0 Act’s Roth catch-up contribution rule. Generally, taxpayers age 50 or older are allowed to make additional “catch-up” contributions to employer-sponsored retirement plans such as 401(k)s. SECURE 2.0 requires catch-up contributions by taxpayers who earned more than $145,000 (indexed for inflation) […]

New Missouri law to crack down on porch pirates

New Missouri law to crack down on porch pirates – Missourinet.com https://bit.ly/45XPb6Q

IRS found to be at-risk for exploitation

Information security at the IRS is an area of weakness, according to an audit by the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration (TIGTA). All federal agencies must have a corrective plan of action, or Plan of Action and Milestones (POA&M), TIGTA explained in a recent report. To test the effectiveness of the tax agency’s POA&Ms, […]

The IRS has updated table used for health insurance credit

The IRS has updated the table used to determine an individual’s health insurance premium tax credit for federally subsidized health plans. The benchmark to calculate the affordability of employer-sponsored health care will drop to 8.39% of household income for 2024. A plan is deemed affordable if the employee’s required contribution doesn’t exceed the annual percentage […]