Individual income taxation

The IRS finalized a proposed rule eliminating the three-year testing period for determining when debt was discharged for cancellation of debt information reporting purposes.

Legislation excluding prize money earned by Olympians and Paralympians from gross income was signed into law.

The IRS issued its annual updates of per-diem rates for use in substantiating certain business expenses taxpayers incur when traveling away from home on or after Oct. 1.

The IRS finalized proposed rules issued last October amending the definitions of marriage and husband and wife after the Supreme Court’s decision in Obergefell v. Hodges, which legalized same-sex marriages.

The IRS is proposing to amend the rules governing eligibility to claim a deduction or credit for eligible education expenses to conform them to recent legislative changes.

A new law allows taxpayers to exclude from income money they receive to compensate them for being wrongfully incarcerated and to claim refunds for earlier tax years if they included such damages in income.

The Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals held that payments a retired Mary Kay sales consultant received from the cosmetics company were subject to self-employment taxes because they were payments of deferred compensation.