Tax practice

The Government Accountability Office has issued a report on the Internal Revenue Service's performance so far this filing season, including a prediction that the IRS will lose hundreds of millions of dollars responding to calls about tax rebates.

There are a lot of very good research tools on the market. But what's available for the small practitioner who needs less than high-powered products?

The administration’s budget proposal to conform the penalty standards applicable to preparers and taxpayers has been welcomed by tax professionals concerned about possible conflicts of interest between preparers and their clients.The budget, the administration’s blueprint for legislative proposals, also calls for making permanent the 2001-2003 tax cuts, and offers measures to increase savings and investment and to improve compliance with the tax system. Rather than address Alternative Minimum Tax reform, it proposes a one-year patch to keep the number of taxpayers subject to the tax at around 4 million.

While many Washington observers have called much of the tax revenue side of the Bush administration’s Fiscal Year 2009 budget proposals dead on arrival, this year’s “Blue Book” of Treasury explanations nevertheless remains an important tax-planning tool.It underscores what the Bush administration considers are problems remaining to be solved. As such, they are problems that need to be either addressed or “planned around” in the meantime. Here is our take on some of the highlights in making that determination.

The Senate has voted to extend $340 billion worth of President Bush's tax cuts that were due to expire in 2010, but has rejected extensions of some other tax cuts.

The nation's economic policy heads outlined sweeping recommendations to strengthen the nation's credit markets -- calling for stronger licensing standards for mortgage brokers, more duel diligence from credit-rating agencies and stronger trading systems for complex instruments in an effort to avoid another credit meltdown. "Regulation needs to catch up with innovation and help restore investor confidence but not go so far as to create new problems, make our markets less efficient or cut off credit to those who need it," Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson said during a speech at the National Press Club. "We are encouraging financial institutions to continue to strengthen balance sheets by raising capital and revisiting dividend policies; we need those institutions to continue to lend and facilitate economic growth." Paulson, who heads the President's Working Group on Financial Markets, said the recommendations emanate from seven months' work by the group, which is comprised of the heads of the Treasury, the Federal Reserve Board, the Securities and Exchange Commission, the New York Federal Reserve Board and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission. Specifically, the PWG recommended strengthening the credit markets in the following areas: transparency and disclosure, risk awareness, risk management, capital management, regulatory policies, and market infrastructure. Paulson stressed that both state and local regulators need to strengthen oversight of mortgage originators, while credit rating agencies, must "perform robust due diligence" of originators of assets that are securitized or used as collateral for structured credit products. Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke labeled the recommendations an "appropriate and effective response to deficiencies in our financial framework that contributed to the current turmoil in financial markets," in a release accompanying the working group's policy statement. Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman Christopher Cox said the agency would use its new authority to address rating agency issues to restore investor confidence. "This effort is not about finding excuses and scapegoats. Those who committed fraud or wrongdoing have contributed to the current problems; authorities need to and are prosecuting them. But poor judgment and poor market practices led to mistakes by all participants," Paulson said. Paulson's remarks can be read at: http://www.treas.gov/press/releases/hp872.htm

The Internal Revenue Service has issued a notice with procedures for vehicle manufacturers to certify that a fuel cell vehicle meets the requirements for a tax credit. It also provides guidance to taxpayers who purchase certified vehicles regarding what they must do to use the credit. Under the law, the new qualified fuel cell motor vehicle credit is available to purchasers of qualified vehicles. The amount of the new qualified fuel cell motor vehicle credit is based on the weight of the vehicle and on when the vehicle is placed in service. An additional credit may be available for a fuel cell passenger automobile or light truck based on a comparison of the city fuel economy rating of that vehicle with the 2002 model year city fuel economy of a vehicle in its weight class. For fuel cell vehicles that weigh not more than 8,500 pounds, the base credit amount is $8,000 if the vehicle is placed in service on or before Dec. 31, 2009. The base credit amount is reduced to $4,000 if the vehicle is placed in service after that date. The amount of the credit available for heavy vehicles varies from $10,000 to $40,000, depending on the weight of the vehicle. The purchaser may claim a credit for the certified amount for a fuel cell vehicle if it is placed in service by the taxpayer after Dec. 31, 2005, and is purchased on or before Dec. 31, 2014.

The Internal Revenue Service has awarded roughly $9 million in matching grants to low income taxpayer clinics for the 2008 grant cycle, which runs from Jan. 1, 2008, through Dec. 31, 2008. LITCs are organizations independent from the IRS that provide low-income taxpayers with pro bono or nominal fee representation in federal tax controversies with the IRS. The clinics also provide tax education and outreach for taxpayers who speak English as a second language. IRS Publication 4134, Low-Income Taxpayer Clinic List, provides information on local clinics and contains details about the languages each clinic serves in addition to English. Through the LITC program, the IRS awards matching grants of up to $100,000 a year to qualifying organizations. For the 2008 grant cycle, the IRS awarded LITC grants to 154 organizations representing all 50 states, plus the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico and Guam.

One quarter of all individual tax returns so far this filing season are being processed by the Internal Revenue Service's modernized account information computer system. The Customer Account Data Engine, or CADE, has processed 15.1 million individual tax returns through March 7, more than 25 percent of all those processed so far this year by the IRS. The number of tax returns processed this year by CADE has already topped the 11.2 million returns the system handled for all of last year. CADE, which is at the core of the effort to replace many of the agency's aging systems, dramatically speeds up internal IRS processing, permitting taxpayer accounts to update on a daily basis, rather than the older system's weekly basis. The IRS is rolling out CADE in a series of "releases," each improving on and adding to the system capabilities. The current release, launched in January, permits CADE to process certain 1040, 1040A and 1040EZ forms, as well as Schedules C, E and F for Form 1040 and a number of other IRS schedules, such as the Earned Income Tax Credit.

Sen. Max Baucus, D-Mont., chairman of the Committee on Finance, and Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, ranking member, have written to several religious ministries to urge cooperation with an earlier information request from Grassley. The ministry inquiry that Grassley launched last November is meant to gauge the effectiveness of certain tax-exempt policies. "This ought to clear up any misunderstanding about our interest and the committee's role," Grassley said. "We have an obligation to oversee how the tax laws are working for both tax-exempt organizations and taxpayers. Just like with reviews of other tax-exempt organizations in recent years, I look forward to the cooperation of these ministries in the weeks and months ahead." Grassley wrote to six ministries in November, asking a series of questions on the nonprofit organizations' expenses, treatment of donations and business practices. The questions were based on presentations of material from watchdog groups and whistleblowers and on investigative reports in local media outlets. One of the six ministries, Joyce Meyer Ministries of Fenton, Mo., has cooperated substantially with his request and provided the requested information. Benny Hinn Ministries of Grapevine, Texas, has indicated a willingness to cooperate and provided answers to five of the 28 questions so far. Representatives for Randy and Paula White of Without Walls International Church/Paula White Ministries, Tampa, Fla., have verbally indicated to Finance Committee staff that they would cooperate. The remaining ministries have not cooperated, citing privacy protections or questioning the committee's standing to request the information. Baucus and Grassley wrote to them on March 11 to describe the committee's jurisdiction and role in determining the effectiveness of tax policy developed by the committee, distinct from the Internal Revenue Service's role, which is to enforce existing law. The three ministries are: Kenneth and Gloria Copeland of Kenneth Copeland Ministries, Newark, Texas; Creflo and Taffi Dollar of World Changers Church International/Creflo Dollar Ministries, College Park, Ga.; and Eddie L. Long of New Birth Missionary Baptist Church/Eddie L. Long Ministries, Lithonia, Ga.

Next year's budget proposals offered by Senate Democrats contain a material increase in spending that is contrary to sound fiscal policy, according to Senator Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, ranking member of the Committee on Finance. In his opening statement on the Senate floor debate of the Fiscal Year 2009 Budget, Grassley noted that the proposals would raise discretionary spending by 9 percent over last year's spending. "How many Americans got a 9 percent raise? How many American families raised their discretionary household spending by 9 percent? You would think proponents of fiscal responsibility would be looking at spending cuts, not 9 percent increases," he said. The consequences are not merely imposed on high-income taxpayers, according to Grassley. "Low-income folks, including millions of seniors, pay no tax on their dividend or capital gain income," he said. "If this budget stands, even with the Baucus amendment, millions of these low-income taxpayers, especially seniors, will pay a 10 percent rate on capital gains and could pay as high as a 15 percent rate on dividends."

The 80 percent e-filing goal by 2007 has been moved forward five years to 2012, now making it entirely possible that it will actually be reached. Calling the new goal "difficult but doable," the IRS Oversight Board blamed the inability to meet the original 2007 goal on a number of factors, including problems and delays with the IRS Business Systems Modernization program and a public wariness about transmitting personal data over the Internet. The good news is that the board singled out the professional tax prep industry for praise. "Particularly impressive has been the growth in individual returns prepared by tax professionals and filed electronically, which increased from approximately 27 percent of paid preparer returns in 1998 to around 70 percent today." Moreover, the report said that achieving the new goal is doable only with the help of the preparer community. "Given Current progress and strategic planning, the Board believes that the IRS can meet an 80 percent e-file goal by 2012--but will need the help of the professional tax community and Congress to do so," it said. Just in case, though, it recommends some initiatives first proposed by ETAAC (the Electronic Tax Administration Advisory Committee) that will have an impact on the life of tax preparers. Among them are lifting the congressional prohibition on the IRS' ability to require the electronic filing of Form 1040 returns, and giving the IRS the discretion to implement e-file mandates for individual returns in the future, "particularly for those returns prepared by paid tax professionals." Fortunately, the board softens the blow by recommending that the IRS exhaust all reasonable steps to maximize voluntary participation first, and that it study the trade-offs between the expected benefits from increased e-file and the burden imposed on filers and preparers before setting any mandates. It goes without saying that if 2011 comes and the 80 percent goal hasn't been reached, it will be tempting to issue mandates to push the results over the goal line. That's not a good idea. Here's hoping Congress and the IRS resist the temptation to resort to draconian measures in order to achieve what should be voluntary behavior.

The Internal Revenue Service needs to improve oversight of its process for interpreting tax laws through its published guidance program, according to a new audit publicly released today by the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration. The audit, "The Public Guidance Program Needs Additional Controls to Minimize Risks and Increase Public Awareness," examined the process by which the IRS Office of Chief Counsel develops tax guidance, including a pilot guidance program to request and evaluate public submissions before considering changes to existing regulations. The chairman and ranking member of the Senate Finance Committee requested the review after news articles questioned whether the pilot program was putting special interest before the public's interests when developing tax guidance. "We believe the pilot program does not present an increased risk of influence by special interest groups in the selection of guidance projects," TIGTA Inspector General J. Russell George said. "The pilot program did not directly create tax guidance or circumvent existing internal controls." "Although Counsel considers ideas from a wide variety of sources when selecting guidance projects for its annual business plan, it does not track all open projects on the business plan, which could lead to an increased risk of untimely actions, less management oversight, and less public awareness," George added. The audit makes seven recommendations to IRS, including expanding written procedures for developing and monitoring the guidance business plan, issuing more frequent updates to and establishing a reasonable expectation in the Priority Guidance Plan, and improving recordkeeping.

The Internal Revenue Service's Business Systems Modernization, a $200 million-plus effort to upgrade the service's systems and processes, is moving ahead, but several of the project's milestones have been riddled by completion delays and cost overruns, the Government Accountability Office said. Specifically, the GAO cited the Customer Account Data Engine -- the new taxpayer information database -- as exceeding its planned schedule by 66 percent and experiencing a 15 percent cost increase; a companion project to the CADE incurred a 153 percent cost overrun; and the modernized e-file program experienced a 41 percent schedule delay.

The Internal Revenue Service has issued guidance for the proper pooling treatment of automobiles, light-duty trucks, and crossover vehicles that have the characteristics of trucks and cars under the dollar-value, last-in, first-out inventory method. To address the distinctions between cars and light-duty trucks, and in response to an Industry Issue Resolution Program request submitted by Miller Chevalier Chartered and the National Auto Dealership Association, the Treasury Department and the Internal Revenue Service issued Revenue Procedure 2008-23. Light-duty trucks are trucks with a gross vehicle weight of 14,000 pounds or less. Effective for tax years ending on or after Dec. 31, 2007, the revenue procedure provides a safe harbor pooling method, the Vehicle-Pool Method, for resellers of cars and light-duty trucks. The Vehicle-Pool Method allows a reseller to establish a new vehicle pool for inventories of new vehicles including new cars, new light-duty trucks, and new crossover vehicles including SUVs, minivans and other similar vehicles and a used vehicle pool for inventories of used vehicles. Revenue Procedure 2008-23 also provides the procedures for a reseller subject to the LIFO pooling requirements to obtain automatic consent to change to the Vehicle-Pool Method.

The House Ways and Means Oversight Subcommittee plans to hold a hearing on the 2008 tax-filing season, Internal Revenue Service operations, fiscal year 2009 budget proposals and the IRS National Taxpayer Advocate's annual report.

The Internal Revenue Service has opened its IRS Free File program to individuals who do not normally file tax returns so they can receive economic stimulus payments.

Democratic lawmakers in the New York State Assembly are reportedly considering the idea of levying an extra 1 percent income tax on everyone with income over $1 million in order to balance the state's budget and help fund transportation costs, but the proposal is likely to run into opposition from the governor and the State Senate.

The Internal Revenue Service has issued final regulations for tax deductions on domestic film productions, while revising the definition of the types of films that qualify for the deduction.

The House Subcommittee on Select Revenue Measures held a hearing to examine whether there is a need for a more uniform treatment of various derivative structures.