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Feature Article

By Amber Gray-Fenner, EA NTPI Fellow USTCP

Working With the IRS Now

The IRS has spent the past several months crowing about the relative ease of filing season 2023 and improvements the service has made on behalf of American taxpayers. Filing season 2024 opened on Monday, January 29 with Commissioner Danny Werfel thanking the tax professional and assuring us that “your efforts make a difference, not just for your clients, but for the IRS and the entire nation.”

Despite Werfel’s rose-colored press releases, there’s still plenty of room for improvement, especially on the tax-professional-facing side of the service.

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S Corporation Shareholder-Employee Reasonable Compensation

The S corporation is a powerful tool for small business owners to manage their business efficiently and reduce payroll taxes on owner’s profits. The primary benefit small business owners get, when organized as an S corporation, is the opportunity to avoid payroll taxes on distributions after paying reasonable compensation. A reasonable wage/salary is a must for shareholder-employee/s. However, the shareholder-employee soon discovers that the lower her wage is, the lower the payroll taxes. Why not pay no wage? Or only a token wage? Of course, the IRS knows those tricks and requires the company to pay “reasonable compensation” to shareholder-employees so they’ll submit proper payroll taxes. The IRS can adjust wages to reflect reasonable compensation. Family members of the shareholder must also receive reasonable compensation for services rendered. In this article we will begin by debunking urban legends surrounding S corporation reasonable compensation followed by calculating a reasonable compensation package before finishing with a strategy.

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Client Alert

Staying Afloat in Tax Seas: Understanding the IRS’s Moratorium on ERC

Question: Should I even bother assisting my clients with filing new ERC claims? Answer: In light of the IRS's recent moratorium on processing new Employee Retention Credit (ERC) claims and the introduction of a withdrawal option for certain employers, it's understandable that you might be wondering whether to assist your clients with filing new claims. The answer, like a well-prepared tax return, is nuanced and deserves a detailed examination.

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Electronic Commerce Creates Confusing Sales Tax Obligations

Any company engaged in e-commerce, i.e., selling online, knows that the ability to reach buyers and customers remotely can juice the bottom line. State and local tax jurisdictions around the country know that, too, especially the bottom line of their sales tax coffers. Now every state with a statewide sales tax has a threshold past which remote sellers must collect and remit state sales tax. Failure to do so can incur big penalties, or worse, and there’s a lot to know based on where and what you sell online.

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Client Alert

What’s at Stake? It’s Not a Loaf of Bread

The IRS loves to issue cryptocurrency guidance when it’s the most inconvenient for me personally. I’m not sure how they accessed my calendar, but it certainly feels like this one was intentional. I was at a tax conference over the summer to teach an introduction to crypto class immediately after lunch. I had just finished eating when my phone started blowing up. The IRS published a new Revenue Ruling on Staking, 45 minutes before I was to teach about it. I read the six-page document, tried to digest it, and considered how I needed to adapt my material on the fly. Another frequent (but not to be named) Tax Box contributor present at the conference teased me about the situation I found myself in. The class went fine, though, because even with a surprise ruling, the IRS didn’t really say anything surprising. In typical IRS fashion, it also created more questions than it answered.

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Client Alert

Tax and Financial Planning for Special Needs

The astronomical costs of a disability can extend beyond extra therapy and special equipment to, potentially, a lifetime of lost earnings. There is some help. The federal government has tax deductions and credits connected with raising a child with special needs, for instance. And though historically a trust has been only financial avenue to care for a disabled loved one, another vehicle is gaining traction. Many tax and financial moves in this area come down to one question that’s unique to this planning: Will money interfere with a disabled person’s ability to get indispensable government benefits?

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Client Alert

Building a Strong Personal Brand as an Accountant: Strategies for Success

What is a personal brand? If you asked me that question in 2018, I would not know how to answer it. As I embarked on my journey to entrepreneurship, I took on any accounting-related project that came my way. I had yet to learn about the meaning of a personal brand. Fast forward to 2020, I launched my CPA firm just before the COVID shutdown. While established CPA firms could sustain or pivot to new services, I still had to figure out how to get clients, build my online presence, and establish trust to create my brand. I learned on my journey that in today’s competitive landscape, a personal brand has become more critical than ever. Professional success is directly related to one’s brand, especially in service-based industries such as accounting. Surveys show that more business owners and young entrepreneurs are looking for accountants they can rely on for not only their technical skills and qualifications but also for a personal connection. Therefore, creating a solid personal brand distinguishes accountants from the rest of the crowd, enhances their credibility, fosters loyalty, and opens doors for new opportunities. I will share my experience, dive into the significance of a personal brand for accountants, and provide actionable strategies to help you build a solid personal brand that resonates with your target audience.

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Tax Rules and Due Diligence for Gambling

The vast range of taxable income and possible deductions and credits an individual may have for federal and state purposes creates a sizeable list of questions to ask clients annually. Regarding types of taxable income alone, the possible sources are almost too numerous to ask. So, is it enough for practitioners to ask for information reporting forms plus a general question about other sources of income? In 2021, the IRS expanded Schedule 1 (Form 1040), Additional Income and Adjustments to Income, changing line 8, “Other income. List type and amount” to lines 8a to 8p to highlight 16 specific types of “other income” with line 8z added for reporting any other income types. One of the specific income types at line 8b is for gambling income. Possibly the detailing of the Form 1040 other income line starting in 2021 signals that the IRS wants self-filers to be aware of what is taxable and that tax preparers should ask clients more questions. In addition to reviewing the tax rules for casual gamblers, two Tax Court bench opinions issued this year are to highlight recent gambling issues the IRS found. The opinions explored the tax gap from gambling activities along with its relevance to due diligence considerations for individuals and tax advisers.

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Not Another ChatGPT Article…

Yes, another ChatGPT article. Or GenAI, really. Okay, I saw you roll your eyes. Well, not "saw" per se, but I felt it allllll the way from over here. But honestly, this is for your benefit, not mine! I've already figured out a ton of ways to use it to make my life easier. Yes, that's right, it's made my LIFE easier, not just work. I'm happy to share a little bit about it if you're interested. Also, before you say (again), "ChatGPT can't do tax returns or tax research. It's a useless piece of technology," - I get it! So much of what we focus on in our practice is the actual work parts. But we are far more than just tax compliance. Or at least we want to be. Okay, think about it this way - why did you become a tax practitioner? Was it because you wanted to help people? Or was it because you thought, "Oh boy, I sure love to just crank out tax returns for 80 hours a week, three months a year!" I'm guessing it was the former! And I don't know about YOUR tax practice, but mine has gotten far more complicated in the last... 20 years? Let's think about all of the changes that have happened in just the last five years? (Okay, yes, that's cheating, but I'm going to do it anyway). We've had TCJA, SECURE, CARES, SECURE 2.0, and probably half a dozen more, in addition to new regulations, case law, IRS pronouncements, state tax law changes, etc. And that's JUST with the tax law. In your practice, consider all of the things that have changed and gotten more complicated. Hybrid and remote work, finding employees, ever-expanding technology stack, one of those fancy new espresso machines with too many buttons, going paperless but still having at least five clients that mail you their documents, trying to determine a niche to offset the additional complexity, figuring out how to market to that niche... And on and on and on. So, my question would be - why WOULDN'T you want to use tools like ChatGPT to offload some of the work? GenAI came along just in time to address a lot of these issues. And I get it, it's hard to see that the pot is boiling when you're the frog in the soup, but let me tell you - the pot is boiling. Let's get you out of there!

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