The Fifth Circuit held that the “individual mandate” under Sec. 5000A, which imposes a “shared responsibility payment” on taxpayers who do not obtain health insurance that provides at least minimum essential coverage, is unconstitutional now that the payment amount has been reduced to zero.
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TOPICS / TAX
Individual income taxation
Guidance issued on payments to charitable organizations
The IRS issued additional rules on the treatment of deductions for charitable contributions in lieu of state and local taxes, an area in which it has already issued final regulations and other guidance.
Deadline for health care information statements extended
As it does every year, the IRS extended the due date to furnish certain health care information statements to individual taxpayers to March 2, 2020.
Safe harbor allows QBI deduction for rental real estate businesses
An earlier notice’s proposed rules are finalized with revisions and clarifications.
Per-diem method clarified in light of TCJA changes
The IRS issued updated rules for substantiating the amount of ordinary and necessary business expenses paid or incurred while traveling using the per-diem rates.
Use of standard mileage rate, other rules are updated for TCJA
The IRS updated its rules concerning the use of standard mileage rates and to reflect the current suspension of miscellaneous itemized deductions and moving expense deductions.
Like-kind exchanges and personal property
A recent law change invites new strategies.
Alimony tax gap swells to $3.2 billion, TIGTA finds
The difference resulted in $248 million of tax underreporting.
Taxpayers may deduct casualty losses in prior years
The IRS finalized regulations permitting taxpayers to deduct disaster losses in the prior tax year and removed the related temporary regulations that were issued in 2016.
IRS clarifies the tax treatment of cryptocurrency ‘hard forks’ and ‘airdrops’
The IRS ruled that a taxpayer does not have gross income as a result of a hard fork of a cryptocurrency if the taxpayer does not receive units of a new cryptocurrency, but does have gross income as a result of an airdrop of new cryptocurrency after a hard fork if the taxpayer receives units of the new cryptocurrency.
Purported family loans were not bona fide, Tax Court holds
The bank deposit method supports an IRS underpayment assessment.
IRS issues 2019 to 2020 per-diem rates for traveling away from home
The IRS issued its annual notice specifying the special per-diem rates, including the transportation industry meal and incidental expenses rates, the rate for the incidental-expenses-only deduction, and the rates and list of high-cost localities for purposes of the high-low substantiation method.
Safe harbor allows QBI deduction for rental real estate businesses
The IRS issued a revenue procedure describing the requirements taxpayers have to meet to be a rental real estate business that qualifies for the safe harbor to be treated as a trade or business in order to qualify for the Sec. 199A qualified business income deduction.
Final regs. loosen 401(k) hardship distribution requirements
The IRS issued final regulations governing hardship distributions from Sec. 401(k) plans, eliminating the requirements that participants obtain a loan from the plan if available and that suspend participants’ ability to make contributions to the plans for six months after taking a hardship distribution.
IRS offers expatriate tax relief
The IRS announced procedures to allow certain individuals who have renounced their U.S. citizenship to get into compliance with their US tax obligations and obtain relief for back taxes.
Taxpayer allowed a deduction under claim of right
A divorced spouse could deduct her indirect repayment of an amount previously included in her and her former husband’s jointly reported income.
Child dependency claims by noncustodial parents
Practitioners can help taxpayers avoid common miscues under the special rule of Sec. 152(e).
Proposed regs. govern maximum automobile values
The IRS issued proposed rules that provide maximum automobile values for the cents-per-mile and fleet-average valuation rules used to determine the amount to include in an employee’s gross income for personal use of an employer-provided vehicle.
Alimony tax gap swells to $3.2 billion, TIGTA finds
Discrepancies between the amount of alimony deducted by payers and reported as income by its recipients increased by 38% in six years, the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration reported.
The QBI deduction for rental real estate activity
Optimal treatment under Sec. 199A eludes any one-size-fits-all solution.
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