e-News for Tax Professionals 2020-42

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Issue Number:  2020-42

Inside This Issue

1. PTIN renewal for 2021; Participate in the 2021 Annual Filing Season Program
2. Online seminars from 2020 IRS Nationwide Tax Forums now available
3. IRS adds QR technology to key balance due notices
4. Temporary procedures to fax certain Forms 1139 and 1045 due to COVID-19
5. Oct. 22 Webinar: Foreign Tax Credit Common Issues
6. News from the Justice Department’s Tax Division
7. Technical Guidance

Preparer Tax Identification Number (PTIN) renewal for 2021 is underway, as is participation in the Annual Filing Season Program for 2021. The IRS Return Preparer’s Office (RPO) will be sending the following message to all PTIN holders over the next few days.

For Annual Filing Season Program participation, the RPO has sent the following message to non-credentialed PTIN holders.

More information about PTINs is available at www.irs.gov/ptin. To find more information about AFSP, visit the Annual Filing Season Program page on irs.gov.

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The IRS announced 18 new seminars from the 2020 Nationwide Tax Forums are now available on IRS Nationwide Tax Forums Online (NTFO). These self-study seminars, available for continuing education credit, provide information using interactive videos, PowerPoint slides and audio transcripts. The seminars, along with other previously recorded sessions from prior IRS Nationwide Tax Forums, are available for $29 per seminar. The 2020 NTFO seminar topics include:

• Be Tax Ready – Understanding Eligibility Rules for EITC, AOTC, CTC and Head of Household Filing Status 
• Federal Ethics for the Tax Professionals: Office of Professional Responsibility (OPR) and Circular 230 
• Tax Changes from a Forms Perspective
• Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA) Update: Opportunity Zones
• Commissioner Rettig’s Keynote Address
• And more

NTFO seminars can also be reviewed for free. Individuals who choose this free option will not have access to the review questions or final examination and will not receive credit for the seminars. For more information please visit www.irstaxforumsonline.com.

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Starting this month, the IRS is adding barcode technology to the CP14 and CP14 IA notices that inform taxpayers that they owe money on unpaid taxes and their payment options. Individuals can use their smartphones to scan a QR code in the CP14 or CP14 IA to go directly to IRS.gov and securely access their account, set up a payment plan or contact the Taxpayer Advocate Service.

The IRS is assessing the possibility of adding QR codes to other balance due notices in the future.

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The IRS added an additional FAQ, number 21, on the timing for ending the temporary procedures put into place to allow the faxing of Form 1139, Corporation Application for Tentative Refund, and Form 1045, Application for Tentative Refund due to Covid-19. Visit IRS.gov for more updates on Coronavirus tax relief.

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The IRS will present the webinar, Foreign Tax Common Issues, at 1 p.m. ET on Oct. 22. The 100-minute webinar will:

• Explain the creditability of foreign taxes with respect to treaty rates vs. statutory withholding rates
• Explain the impact that the recent Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017 has on the foreign tax credit
• Define foreign tax redeterminations

Tax pros can earn two continuing education credits.

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A Birmingham, Ala., tax return preparer pleaded guilty to aiding and assisting in the preparation of a false tax return. According to court documents, Shuntan Rue owned and operated a tax return preparation business in the Birmingham area known as Rue Tax Service. Between 2013 and 2016, Rue prepared and filed false tax returns for her clients by claiming education credits and itemized deductions, among other items, to which her clients were not entitled and caused her clients to underpay their income taxes. In addition, Rue claimed similar false items on her own 2012 and 2013 federal income tax returns. Rue’s conduct caused a loss to the IRS of more than $250,000. Rue faces a statutory maximum sentence of three years in prison as well as a period of supervised release, restitution, and monetary penalties.

A Rocky Mount, N.C., tax return preparer pleaded guilty today to conspiring to defraud the United States. According to court documents, between 2009 and 2017, Adrienne Williams owned and operated Ultimate Tax Service, a return preparation business and trained her employees on various ways to prepare false tax returns, including by claiming false federal income tax withholdings. In all, the false returns prepared and filed by Williams and her employees on behalf of clients sought more than $3.5 million in inflated refunds.

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Revenue Procedure 20-43 provides the inflation-adjusted maximum dollar amount that may be made newly available for excepted benefit health reimbursement arrangements or other account-based group health plans for plan years beginning after December 31, 2020, and before January 1, 2022. Due to indexing methodology requiring rounding down to the nearest $50 increment, this amount remains $1,800 for the 2021 plan year.

Revenue Procedure 2020-44 mitigates certain potential tax consequences of adopting fallback language recommended by the Alternative Reference Rates Committee and the International Swaps and Derivatives Association to facilitate the market’s transition away from the London Interbank Offered Rate and other interbank offered rates.

Notice 2020-77 provides guidance on the corporate bond monthly yield curve, the corresponding spot segment rates used under section 417(e)(3), and the 24-month average segment rates under section 430(h)(2) of the Internal Revenue Code.  In addition, this notice provides guidance as to the interest rate on 30-year Treasury securities under section 417(e)(3)(A)(ii)(II) as in effect for plan years beginning before 2008 and the 30-year Treasury weighted average rate under section 431(c)(6)(E)(ii)(I), as reflected by the application of section 430(h)(2)(C)(iv). 

Revenue Ruling 2020-22 provides various prescribed rates for federal income tax purposes including the applicable federal interest rates, the adjusted applicable federal interest rates, the adjusted federal long-term rate, and the adjusted federal long-term tax-exempt rate. These rates are determined as prescribed by section 1274.

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