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Issue Number:  2017-1

Inside This Issue

1. New on IRS.gov
2. Use Publication 2043 to Set Refund Expectations for Your Clients
3. Inform your employees about the Earned Income Tax Credit during EITC Awareness Day on January 27
4. 2017 Standard Mileage Rates for Business, Medical and Moving Announced
5. Technical Guidance

• Pub. 974, Premium Tax Credit (PTC)
• 2017 Form W-4P, Withholding Certificate for Pension or Annuity Payments
• 2016 Form W-4P,  Withholding Certificate for Pension or Annuity Payments
• 2017 Form W-4 (SP), Employee's Withholding Allowance Certificate (Spanish version)
• 2016 Form W-4 (SP), Employee's Withholding Allowance Certificate (Spanish version) 
• 2017 Form W-4, Employee's Withholding Allowance Certificate 
• 2016 Form W-4, Employee's Withholding Allowance Certificate 
• Form 8885, Health Coverage Tax Credit
• Pub. 509, Tax Calendars 2017
• Pub. 51, Circular A, Agricultural Employer's Tax Guide 2017
• Pub. 15-B, Employer's Tax Guide to Fringe Benefits 2017
• Pub. 1220, Specifications for Electronic Filing of Forms 1097, 1098, 1099, 3921, 3922, 5498, and W-2G Tax Year 2016

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The IRS updated Publication 2043, IRS Refund Information Guidelines for the Tax Preparation Community for 2017. The publication provides the latest refund information and guidelines for advising your clients who are expecting refunds.

This year’s update includes information about a new law that requires the IRS to hold refunds claiming the Earned Income Tax Credit and the Additional Child Tax Credit. The IRS will begin to release EITC/ACTC refunds starting Feb. 15.

However, these refunds likely will not reach taxpayers until the week of Feb. 27.

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EITC Awareness Day is January 27, 2017. The IRS created several messages to inform your employees about this important credit, ways to determine if they qualify for it and how to claim it.

We also hope you’ll support our EITC Awareness Day Thunderclap effort by promoting it anytime now through January 27 using your Facebook, Twitter and Tumblr social media accounts. http://thndr.me/wR8wNT

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The Internal Revenue Service issued the 2017 optional standard mileage rates used to calculate the deductible costs of operating an automobile for business, charitable, medical or moving purposes.

Beginning on Jan. 1, 2017, the standard mileage rates for the use of a car (also vans, pickups or panel trucks) will be:

• 53.5 cents per mile for business miles driven, down from 54 cents for 2016
• 17 cents per mile driven for medical or moving purposes, down from 19 cents for 2016
• 14 cents per mile driven in service of charitable organizations

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Notice 2017-09 – De Minimis Error Safe Harbor to the I.R.C. §§ 6721 and 6722 Penalties, provides the requirements for making an election related to information returns and seeks comment on the matters discussed in the notice.

Revenue Procedure 2017-14 – Addresses the requirements for a CPEO to remain certified and the procedures relating to suspension and revocation of CPEO certification, and consolidates in one place the ongoing requirements articulated in the regulations.

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