In the Blogs: The Season Approaches

by Jeff Stimpson, November 15

(119K)

Highlights of some of our favorite tax-related blogs from the past week.

TaxMama: Following “a total paradigm shift in our government,” the nuts and bolts of what Trump’s plan means for changes individuals can expect in their tax lives. Hint: “a mixed bag of goodies and sillies.”
Don’t Mess With Taxes: Expats are on the rise, according to the IRS. That and the timing of the recent presidential campaign and still-smoldering election is purely circumstantial.
Tax Vox: Politics makes strange bedfellows indeed when the fossil fuel industry worked with progressive advocacy groups and even environmental groups joined to defeat Washington state’s carbon tax initiative, which would have been the first such tax in the U.S. and which has been an apparent success at reducing emissions in British Columbia.

Solutions for CPA Firm Leaders: Maybe your last partners’ retreat sent you back to the office on cloud nine regarding commitment to your firm. And probably that cloud dissipated when you realized how the e-mails and voicemails had piled up. How to retain, day to day, the energy ignited by your retreats.
ClientWhys: The Search Is On Dept.: How inbound links figure into your firm’s SEO and Internet brand awareness.
Intuit Proconnect: “12 Apps to Help Keep You Organized This Tax Season” offers some nifty tools, from QuickBooks Online to virtual helpers for appointments, meetings, passwords, documents and meals.

Taxing Subjects: In honor of the holiday just passed, a look at how our tax system honors veterans.
Musings of a Burbank CPA: Reminding you to remind them of the 2016-2017 Me-F efile production shutdown schedule. Next up is Nov. 30.
Turbotax: “There are three extra days to complete and file taxes” next April! What’ll they think of next? And who deserves the break more?
John R. Dundon II EA: The series on year-end tax planning and charitable giving continues with a look at DAFs.
Summing It Up: If you have clients who shelled out for R&D on internal-use software, what to remind them about regarding possible tax credits.

Bloomberg BNA Software: Corporate taxpayers may soon feel a pinch as the IRS freezes its Compliance Assurance Program (CAP), under which service auditors review and agree to tax positions prior to filing a return. “In other words, CAP reduces tax audit risk and removes the uncertainty surrounding tax positions.” If corporations will miss that, they’re only human.
Tax Policy: How a recent review found that Virginia’s economic development program is “inefficient and mismanaged.” People’s Exhibit A is how the state granted $1.4 million in incentives to a Chinese company that promised hundreds of jobs, only to find that the company did not in fact even exist.
BNA Blogs: Mississippi’s dividend exclusion statute unconstitutionally discriminates against interstate commerce, according to a recent ruling by the state’s Supreme Court, with AT&T a big winner. More to most preparers’ points, “this ruling may provide a refund opportunity for taxpayers affected by the dividend exclusion provision.”

Tax Girl: How the author ran into the intensifying scrutiny regarding school districts guarding against parents fudging addresses to get kids into better schools.
Due Diligence: In this week’s collection: “Tesco Bank Cyberhacking State-Sponsored?”; “Customs Duties and Tariffs Whistleblower Claims to Soar under Trump”; “Brian Mahany Discusses Election and What It Means to Whistleblowers”; “Red State, Blue State – Construction Whistleblowers Can Rejoice”; “Why Wells Fargo Spawns Greed and Corruption”; and “Bank of America Accused of Gouging Ex-Inmates.”
Taxable Talk: Paper Chase Dept.: A law school, even one that touts “freedom” in its name, is no excuse to dodge filing returns.
Procedurally Taxing: Biggers v. Internal Revenue Service looks at “the difficult administrative position that IRS put itself in” years ago regarding whether a taxpayer who files a return late may discharge the taxes owed on the late-filed returns in bankruptcy.
Mauled Again: It helps the learning process. It also increases heart attack survival, and reduces cavities and blood pressure with equal sweet proficiency. It enhances brain function. Isn’t it time, then, to tax chocolate?