John S. Crosby, CPA

The American Institute of CPAs is calling on Congress to fund the Internal Revenue Service at the level requested by the White House in its fiscal year 2023 budget request. Separately, the group offered its suggestions on the IRS Guidance Priority List. "In advance of the Fiscal Year 2023 appropriations cycle, we request that you fund the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) at necessary levels to allow it to handle all the duties required of it by Congress, including properly administering and enforcing our nation's tax laws as well as providing needed assistance to taxpayers and their advisers in a timely and professional manner," AICPA said in a May 25, 2022, letter to Democratic and Republican leadership in both the House and Senate Appropriations Committees.

Department of the Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen is continuing to promote the agreement on international taxes reached by most members of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development on a global corporate minimum tax, but acknowledged that its overall impact will be determined by the final details.

Republican members of the Senate Finance Committee are the latest group to call on the Internal Revenue Service to implement 2-D barcoding technology on individual tax forms.

Internal Revenue Service Commissioner Charles Rettig is pushing back on assertions that the agency is spending less time targeting wealthy taxpayers for audit in favor of lower income taxpayers.

The IRS announced that is completing the processing on a key group of individual tax returns filed during 2021. Business paper returns filed in 2021 will follow shortly after. The Service began 2022 with a larger than usual inventory of paper tax returns and correspondence filed during 2021 due to the pandemic. The IRS will continue to work on the few remaining 2021 individual tax returns that have processing issues or require additional information from the taxpayer. As of June 10, the IRS had processed over 4.5 million individual paper tax returns received in 2021.

The IRS began its "Dirty Dozen" list for 2022, which includes potentially abusive arrangements that taxpayers should avoid. The tax scams in this series focus on four transactions that are wrongfully promoted and will likely attract additional agency compliance efforts in the future. Those four abusive transactions involve charitable remainder annuity trusts, Maltese individual retirement arrangements, foreign captive insurance and monetized installment sales. These are the first four entries in this year's Dirty Dozen series.

The National Taxpayer Advocate (NTA), Erin M. Collins, has released her 2021 Annual Report to Congress. The NTA called the calendar year 2021 the most challenging year taxpayers and tax professionals have ever experienced. The report states that tens of millions of taxpayers experienced delays in the processing of their returns, and with 77 percent of individual taxpayers receiving refunds.

The IRS has reminded taxpayers of reporting and potential tax obligations from working in the gig economy, making virtual currency transactions, earning foreign-source income, or holding certain foreign assets. The information available on IRS.gov and instructions on Form 1040 can help taxpayers in understanding and meeting these requirements. Generally, income earned from the gig economy is taxable and must be reported to the IRS. The gig economy is the activity where people earn income providing on-demand work, services or goods.

The U.S. Department of the Treasury issued the final rule implementing the State and Local Fiscal Recovery Funds (SLFRF) Program. The program, created as part of the American Rescue Plan, provides $350 billion to state, local, and tribal governments to support their response to the COVID-19 pandemic, ensuring they have resources to provide for health and vaccine services, funding to support families and business who might be struggling with the economic impacts of the pandemic, and maintaining vital public services.

The IRS has reminded taxpayers to take extra precautions to file accurate tax returns electronically to speed refunds as the agency begins the 2022 tax filing season. The IRS is now accepting and processing 2021 tax returns. Over 160 million individual tax returns for the 2021 tax year are expected to be filed. Most taxpayers face an April 18, 2022, deadline due to the Emancipation Day holiday in Washington, D.C. falling on April 15. Taxpayers in Maine and Massachusetts will have an April 19 deadline due to Patriots Day. Disaster victims in some locations will have later filing deadlines. As several critical tax law changes took place in 2021, IRS Commissioner Chuck Rettig noted that taxpayers must take special care this year. He stated that taxpayers should file electronically as filing a paper tax return this year will mean an extended refund delay. Further, Rettig stated that the IRS will work hard to catch up on past tax returns affected by the pandemic and deliver refunds quickly.