e-News for Tax Professionals Issue 2014-6

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Issue Number:  2014-6

Inside This Issue

1. Help Your Clients Avoid Long Presidents' Day Wait Times
2. IDR Enforcement Procedures Date Extended to March 3
3. IRS.gov in Spanish
4. Technical Guidance

The Internal Revenue Service needs your help during our busiest time of the year – the Presidents' Day holiday and week. During this time, especially the Tuesday following the holiday, we get many more phone calls than we do the rest of the year. We don’t want your clients to wait on hold unnecessarily – especially when they can get the information they need on IRS.gov without ever calling the IRS. Please remind your clients of the following regarding their refunds and Forms W-2:

Where’s My Refund? More than 90 percent of refunds are issued in less than 21 days. IRS representatives will not provide individual refund information over the telephone before then. Your clients can easily track their refunds by using the Where’s My Refund tool.  It’s available on IRS.gov. Where’s My Refund? provides the most up-to-date information available.

I didn’t get my W-2. Employers are required to send to their employees a Form W-2, Statement of Earnings, by Jan. 31. Your clients should allow enough time for the form to be mailed to their address of record. If they do not receive a W-2 by mid-February, they should make their first call to the employer. They should make sure the employer has their correct address. After exhausting options with employers, they can contact the IRS, and IRS will send a letter to the employer. However, we urge your clients to call the IRS after Presidents' Day week to avoid long wait times.

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The IRS Large Business and International Division will be extending the effective date of the enforcement procedures as outlined in the Nov. 4, 2013 LB&I Directive on Information Document Requests Enforcement Process to March 3, 2014, to provide the clarification that is necessary to ensure that the procedures governing IDR issuance and enforcement are easily and clearly understood.

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Do you have Spanish-speaking clients? IRS offers great resources in Spanish at http://www.irs.gov/Spanish

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Revenue Ruling 2014-7 provides guidance on the amount of the life insurance reserves taken into account under § 807 of the Internal Revenue Code for a variable contract where some or all of the reserves are accounted for as part of a life insurance company's separate account reserves.

Revenue Procedure 2014-20 provides a safe harbor under which the Internal Revenue Service will, under certain, defined circumstances, treat indebtedness that is secured by 100 percent of the ownership interest in a disregarded entity that holds real property as indebtedness that is secured by real property for purposes of § 108(c)(3)(A) of the Internal Revenue Code.  This revenue procedure will assist taxpayers with so-called “mezzanine” financing in workouts and similar circumstances.

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