The Internal Revenue Service plans to add a question regarding divorce and separation information to Schedule 1 of the Form 1040 next year asking taxpayers who claim a deduction for paying alimony to provide the date of their divorce or separation agreement, according to a new report. The report, from the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration, is mainly devoted to assessing the IRS’s overall implementation of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act. It includes a single recommendation, suggesting the IRS revise Schedule 1 of the 1040 to obtain additional information regarding divorce or separation agreements for tax year 2019 and later. IRS management agreed with TIGTA’s recommendation and plans to program and use filters to select tax returns for audit to determine if taxpayers are eligible for the deduction for alimony payments, and to revise Form 1040, Schedule 1 to request the date of divorce or separation agreements. The 2017 tax overhaul eliminated or sharply limited various traditional tax deductions, including the alimony deduction. Only taxpayers who make payments under divorce or separation agreements entered into prior to January 1, 2019, can continue to claim a deduction for payments made, and individuals who receive alimony pursuant to these agreements … Read More
199A Final Regulations Issued
The Treasury Department and the IRS have released on IRS.gov the corrected draft final regulations under section 199A (section 199A final regulations) on the new qualified business income (QBI) deduction (section 199A deduction). These corrections include, among other edits, corrections to the definition and computation of excess section 743(b) basis adjustments for purposes of determining the unadjusted basis immediately after an acquisition of qualified property, as well as corrections to the description of an entity disregarded as separate from its owner for purposes of section 199A and §§1.199A-1 through 1.199A-6. The corrected draft has been submitted to the Federal Register for publication.
IRS ISSUES FINAL GUIDANCE ON THE TREATMENT OF RENTAL PROPERTIES AND THE SECTION 199A DEDUCTION
The Internal Revenue Service is recommending that small businesses and other payers to check out the agency’s newly-revised backup withholding publication, now available on IRS.gov.
REPORTING UNDISCLOSED FOREIGN ASSETS
On March 13, the IRS announced that it will close the Offshore Voluntary Disclosure Program (OVDP), effective September 28, 2018. In the announcement, the IRS encouraged taxpayers who need to disclose noncompliant and unreported foreign accounts and assets to come forward before the September deadline.
A NEW LOOK FOR THE FORM W-4:
Revised versions are expected at some point in mid-August.
PROPOSED REGS REFLECT NEW HEAD OF HOUSEHOLD DUE DILIGENCE RULE FOR TAX PREPARERS
Proposed regulations have been issued by the Internal Revenue Service that amend portions of previously proposed regulations to reflect the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA) expansion of the scope of the tax return preparer due diligence penalty under Code Sec. 6695(g).