Individual income taxation

TOPICS / TAX

July 1, 2015

Treatment of CHIP buy-in programs clarified

Taxpayers will be ineligible for premium assistance credits only for periods they are enrolled in a CHIP buy-in program that has been designated as minimum essential coverage.

July 1, 2015

Tax treatment of employer-provided meals and lodging

The line between exempt fringe benefit and taxable compensation features some surprising twists in this enduring source of tax controversy.

July 1, 2015

Qualified performance-based compensation rules are finalized

Regs. clarify the per-employee limitation and transition rule for compensation paid before a corporation becomes publicly held.

May 19, 2015

Tax reform, lower rates among top legislative goals, Ryan tells AICPA

In a speech to the AICPA’s spring Council meeting, Rep. Paul Ryan, chair of the House Ways and Means Committee, laid out his goals for tax reform and lower tax rates. He also called for the United States to adopt a territorial tax system.

May 18, 2015

Supreme Court invalidates Maryland’s personal income tax structure

The U.S. Supreme Court held that Maryland’s personal income tax, which does not permit a credit against Maryland county income tax for taxes paid to other states, violates the dormant Commerce Clause.

April 16, 2015

Millions of taxpayer phone calls went unanswered by IRS this tax season

The interim report for the 2015 filing season revealed that the average time a taxpayer calling the IRS for assistance had to wait was 24.6 minutes, up from 11.7 minutes last year, and that very few taxpayer calls were actually answered.

April 13, 2015

Egg donor’s payment for pain is taxable income

Payments a woman received under a voluntary egg-donation contract could not be excluded from income as damages for physical injury or sickness under Sec. 104(a)(2).

April 10, 2015

Wife of anti-tax author sentenced to prison

Doreen Hendrickson, wife of tax protester author Peter Hendrickson, who wrote the antitax book Cracking the Code, has been sentenced to 18 months in prison for criminal contempt after failing to file amended tax returns as ordered by a court and for filing a false return.

March 10, 2015

Long-haul truck driver has no tax home

A long-haul truck driver who spent 358 days on the road during 2009 did not have a tax home that would permit him to deduct his travel expenses as unreimbursed business expenses.

March 3, 2015

IRS proposes new slot machine tax rules

Under the safe harbor, gamblers complying with the rules would be permitted to net gains and losses from all slot machine play on the same calendar day at one gambling establishment.

March 1, 2015

Dependency rules can trip up taxpayers

A recent Tax Court case illustrates the problems taxpayers can face if they do not strictly adhere to the rules regarding dependents.

February 25, 2015

Taxpayers who already filed 2014 returns using incorrect Forms 1095-A won’t have to pay more tax

The IRS announced that about 800,000 taxpayers (20% of the people receiving the form) had received incorrect Forms 1095-A, Health Insurance Marketplace Statement, for 2014.

February 20, 2015

Thousands receive incorrect health care tax forms; signup period extended

The government says it sent thousands of incorrect Forms 1095-A to taxpayers who signed up for health insurance on the HealthCare.gov website. It is working to correct those forms by early March.

February 10, 2015

Most outstanding claims for FICA tax refunds will be denied, IRS announces

The IRS announced that it would disallow all claims for refund that were filed for Federal Insurance Contributions Act taxes withheld on severance payments in light of the Supreme Court’s decision in Quality Stores, Inc., that those payments were subject to tax.

February 6, 2015