e-News for Tax Professionals Issue 2019-31

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Issue Number:  2019-31

Inside This Issue

1. IRS Waives Excise Tax on Dyed Fuel in Florida, Urges Taxpayers to Be Hurricane-Ready
2. Reminder: e-File, e-Services Unavailable Over Labor Day Weekend
3. Interest Rates Unchanged for the Fourth Quarter
4. News from the Justice Department’s Tax Division
5. Technical Guidance

To minimize or prevent disruptions to the supply of fuel for diesel-powered highway vehicles because of Hurricane Dorian, the Internal Revenue Service announced today it will not impose a penalty when dyed diesel fuel is sold for use or used on the highway in the State of Florida.

As Hurricane Dorian threatens Florida, the Internal Revenue Service reminds everyone to develop an emergency preparedness plan. Taxpayers, whether individuals, organizations or businesses, should take time now to create or update their emergency plans.

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The Modernized e-File (MeF) Systems, both Production and ATS, will be unavailable from 8 a.m. ET on Saturday, Aug. 31, to 6 a.m. ET on Tuesday, Sept. 3. Please monitor the MeF Status Page for updates. Additionally, the e-Services’ Transcript Delivery System, TIN Matching, ACA and e-file Application will also be unavailable during this time.

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Interest rates will hold unchanged for the calendar quarter beginning Oct. 1, 2019. The rates will be:

• 5 percent for overpayments (4 percent in the case of a corporation
• 2.5 percent for the portion of a corporate overpayment exceeding $10,000
• 5 percent for underpayments
• 7 percent for large corporate underpayments

For more information, review Revenue Ruling 2019-21.

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The U.S. Justice Department Tax Division this week reported the indictment of Brian Booker, a former CPA from Fort Lauderdale, Fla., for failure to report foreign bank accounts (FBARs) and filing false documents with the IRS. According to the Tax Division, Booker failed to disclose his interest in financial accounts located in Switzerland, Singapore and Panama. Booker also allegedly filed false individual income tax returns for tax years 2010 through 2012 that failed to report all of Booker’s foreign bank accounts. If convicted, Booker faces a maximum sentence of five year in prison for each count relating to his failure to file an FBAR and a maximum sentence of three years for each of the counts related to filing false tax returns.

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Revenue Procedure 2019-23 adds one country – Georgia – to the list of countries with which the United States has in force an information exchange agreement such that interest paid to residents of such jurisdictions must be reported by payors to the extent required under Treas. Reg. sections 1.6049-8(a) and 1.6049-4(b)(5). This revenue procedure also adds Curaçao and Cyprus to the list of jurisdictions with which Treasury and the IRS have determined that it is appropriate to have an automatic exchange relationship with respect to bank deposit interest income information under those regulatory provisions.

Revenue Procedure 2019-36 provides the domestic asset/liability percentages and domestic investment yields needed by foreign life insurance companies and foreign property and liability insurance companies to compute their minimum effectively connected net investment income under section 842(b) of the Internal Revenue Code for taxable years beginning after Dec. 31, 2017.

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