e-News for Tax Professionals Issue 2015-24

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Issue Number:  2015-24

Inside This Issue

1. Nearly 44,000 Tax Return Preparers Completed the First Voluntary Education Program Offered by the IRS to Prepare for the 2015 Filing Season
2. Jeffrey Tribiano Named Deputy Commissioner for Operations Support
3. Proposed Regulations Offer Guidelines for New State-Sponsored ABLE Accounts for People with Disabilities
4. Empowerment Zone Designations Continue Through the End of 2014
5. Failure to Deposit Penalty Relief
6. New Estate Tax Closing Letter Procedures
7. Tax Relief for Severe Storms, Tornadoes, Straight-line Winds and Flooding in Oklahoma
8. Technical Guidance

Nearly 44,000 tax return preparers participated in the Annual Filing Season Program in its first year. The voluntary program was announced a year ago and designed to encourage continuing education (CE) and filing season readiness.

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Jeffrey Tribiano, a top official at the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Food and Nutrition Service and a commissioned officer in the Navy Reserve, has been named the next IRS Deputy Commissioner for Operations Support.

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The IRS released proposed regulations implementing a new federal law authorizing states to offer specially-designed tax-favored ABLE accounts to people with disabilities who became disabled before age 26.

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The IRS announced that all empowerment zone designations remained in effect through the end of 2014. Empowerment Zones are certain urban and rural areas where employers and other taxpayers qualify for special tax incentives.

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The IRS has issued interim guidance for taxpayers who are unable to get a bank account or make other arrangements for depositing their federal tax obligations by electronic funds transfer and thus, subject to a penalty for failure to deposit under section 6656.

To help avoid processing delays, please include “unbanked taxpayer” or a statement about being unable to get a bank account in the subject line, or at the beginning of the request for relief from the penalty.

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For estate tax returns filed on or after June 1, 2015, estate tax closing letters will be issued only upon request.  For more information, please see the Frequently Asked Questions on Estate Tax at IRS.gov.

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Victims of the severe storms, tornadoes, straight-line winds and flooding that took place beginning on May 5, 2015 in parts of Oklahoma may qualify for tax relief from the Internal Revenue Service.

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Revenue Procedure 2015-34 describes procedures for a multiemployer defined benefit pension plan in critical and declining status to apply for approval of a proposed suspension of benefits under Section 432(e)(9).  The revenue procedure provides that the Treasury Department will accept applications beginning June 19, 2015.  The revenue procedure is being issued in conjunction with temporary and proposed regulations providing guidance on benefit suspensions. Section 432(e)(9) was amended by section 201 of the Multiemployer Pension Reform Act of 2014, Division O of the Consolidated and Further Continuing Appropriations Act, 2015, Public Law 113-235 (128 Stat. 2130 (2014)).

Revenue Procedure 2015-37 informs taxpayers that the Internal Revenue Service will not issue letter rulings or determination letters regarding whether the assets in a grantor trust receive a section 1014 basis adjustment at the death of the deemed owner of the trust for income tax purposes when those assets are not includible in the gross estate of that owner under chapter 11 of subtitle B of the Internal Revenue Code.  

Notice 2015-44 publishes the inflation adjustment factor for the credit for carbon dioxide (CO₂) sequestration under § 45Q of the Internal Revenue Code (§ 45Q credit) for calendar year 2015.

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