Included in the Biden Administration’s proposed budget for fiscal 2022 is an additional $1.2 billion in funding to help the IRS ramp up its tax enforcement efforts after more than a decade of spending and staffing cuts. What this means for taxpayers is a likely increase in IRS audits and heightened scrutiny of tax compliance, […]
The American Rescue Plan (ARP), signed into law on March 11, 2021, allows eligible taxpayers to exclude from their 2020 taxable income up to $10,200 in unemployment benefits they received last year. This relief is subject to certain restrictions and limitations as well as further changes as the IRS continues to issue guidance. Ordinarily, unemployment […]
Consumers’ passions to live more socially conscious, environmentally responsible lives has seeped deeper into the corporate world, where companies are now expected to address their impact on these societal issues with the same level of enthusiasm as its customers and investors. It is consequently no surprise that more than 90 percent of U.S. companies traded […]
With all the economic hardships caused by the COVID-19 crisis, businesses must take the time to carefully review their financial losses to uncover potential opportunities for which they may use those deductions to maximize tax efficiency in 2020 and the years ahead. For example, much ink has been spilled over the Coronavirus Aid, Relief and […]
The COVID-19 pandemic has forced businesses to quickly adapt in extraordinary ways. Today, as vaccinations begin to roll out across the country, companies must again prepare to acclimate to a future business environment when the pandemic is no longer paramount. As simple as it may seem to assume that we will all return to “business […]
The COVID-19 pandemic and long-awaited rollout of FDA-approved vaccines this year highlight the importance of planning for rising medical costs and taking advantage of tax breaks, when available, to help you cover some of those expenses. Following are the IRS’s annual cost-of-living adjustments for various provisions of the tax code that relate to health care […]
The Consolidations Appropriations Act of 2021, signed into law on Dec. 27, 2020, provides 401(k) sponsors with welcome relief from partial plan terminations that may have otherwise occurred in the wake of COVID-19-related workforce reductions. Background Under longstanding IRS rules, businesses that lay off 20 percent or more of employees covered by a defined-contribution plan in a […]
The second round of COVID-19 stimulus signed into law on Dec. 27, 2020, temporarily lifts the 50 percent limitation on deductions for business meal expenses that was first introduced in 2017 by the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA). Effective for tax years 2021 and 2022, businesses may fully write off 100 percent of the […]
On December 27, President Trump signed the $900 billion economic-assistance package approved by Congress earlier in the week to help Americans weather the ongoing financial strains of the COVID-19 health crisis. The legislation calls for direct stimulus payments to qualifying taxpayers, an additional 11-weeks of federal emergency-unemployment benefits and greater flexibility for taxpayers to qualify […]
The IRS and Treasury Department recently released guidance clarifying how Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) participants must treat loan expenses when they have not received loan forgiveness by the end of the 2020 tax year. Under Revenue Ruling 2020-27 and Revenue Procedure 2020-51, businesses that “reasonably believe” the SBA will forgive their PPP loans in the […]