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Weekly IRS Roundup January 9 – January 13, 2023

Presented below is our summary of significant Internal Revenue Service (IRS) guidance and relevant tax matters for the week of January 9, 2023 – January 13, 2023.

January 9, 2023: The IRS released Internal Revenue Bulletin 2023-2, which highlights the following:

  • Announcement 2023-2: This announcement provides transitional guidance with respect to the reporting of information on digital assets. Specifically, brokers are not required to report additional information on the disposition of digital assets until final regulations under Sections 6045 and 6045A are issued.
  • Notice 2023-8: This notice provides guidance for brokers to comply with the provisions of the final regulations under Section 1446(f) and certain provisions of the final regulations that apply to Section 1446(a) that relate to withholding on the transfer of an interest in a publicly traded partnership.
  • Revenue Rule 2023-1: This revenue ruling provides the applicable federal rates for federal income tax purposes for January 2023. The short-term federal interest rate will decrease to 4.50%, the mid-term rate will drop to 3.85% and the long-term rate will fall to 3.84%.
  • Treasury Decision 9970: This document includes final regulations that provide an automatic extension for providers of minimum essential coverage (including health insurance issuers, self-insured employers and government agencies) to furnish individual statements regarding such coverage and an alternative method for furnishing individual statements when the individual shared responsibility payment amount is zero. The final regulations also provide an automatic extension for applicable large employers to furnish statements relating to health insurance that they offer to their full-time employees.
  • Notice 2023-5: This notice provides updates on the corporate bond monthly yield curve, the corresponding spot segment rates and the 24-month average segment rates under Section 430(h)(2). This notice also provides guidance on the interest rate for 30-year Treasury securities as in effect for plan years beginning before 2008 and the 30-year Treasury weighted average rate.
  • Notice 2023-4: This notice provides the percentage increase for calculating the qualifying payment amounts for items and services furnished during 2023 with respect to Sections 9816 and 9817 of the Internal Revenue Code, Sections 716 and 717 of the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 and Sections 2799A-1 and 2799A-2 of the Public Health Service Act.
  • Notice 2023-06: This notice explains the requirements for fuel to be eligible for the sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) credit, how to claim the credit and who must be registered. The SAF credit was created by the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 and applies to a qualified fuel mixture containing SAF for certain uses or sales in the 2023 and 2024 calendar years.

January 9, 2023: The IRS released Tax Tip 2023-02, advising people to hang up if scammers call during tax season. The IRS says it will never (1) call to demand immediate payment using [...]

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Weekly IRS Roundup January 3 – January 6, 2023

Presented below is our summary of significant Internal Revenue Service (IRS) guidance and relevant tax matters for the week of January 3, 2023 – January 6, 2023.

January 3, 2023: The IRS released Internal Revenue Bulletin 2023-1, which highlights the following:

  • Revenue Procedure 2023-1: This contains the revised procedures for letter rulings and information letters issued by the different offices of the Associate Chief Counsel. This procedure also contains the revised procedures for determination letters issued by the Large Business and International (LB&I) Division, the Small Business/Self Employed Division, the Wage and Investment Division and the Tax Exempt and Government Entities (TE/GE) Division.
  • Revenue Procedure 2023-2: This procedure explains when and how an associate office within the Office of Chief Counsel provides technical advice conveyed in technical advice memoranda (TAM). It also explains the rights a taxpayer has when a field office requests a TAM.
  • Revenue Procedure 2023-3: This procedure provides a revised list of areas of the Internal Revenue Code (IRC) under the jurisdiction of the Associate Chief Counsel offices of Corporate, Financial Institutions and Products, Income Tax and Accounting, Passthroughs and Special Industries, Procedure and Administration, Employee Benefits, Exempt Organizations and Employment Taxes. These relate to matters in which the IRS will not issue letter rulings or determination letters.
  • Revenue Procedure 2023-4: This document provides guidance relating to the types of advice the IRS provides to taxpayers on issues under the jurisdiction of the TE/GE Division, Employee Plans Rulings and Agreements and the procedures that apply to requests for determination letters and private letter rulings.
  • Revenue Procedure 2023-5: This provides the procedures for issuing determination letters on items under the jurisdiction of the Director, Exempt Organizations Rulings and Agreements.
  • Revenue Procedure 2023-7: This procedure provides the areas under the jurisdiction of the Associate Chief Counsel International in which rulings will not be issued.

January 3, 2023: The IRS encouraged taxpayers to review the Taxpayer Bill of Rights, which may help resolve filing season questions. Each month, Tax Tips will focus on one of the 10 categories of taxpayer rights.

January 3, 2023: The IRS issued Revenue Procedure 2023-10, which prescribes the loss payment patterns for the 2022 determination year and the discount factors for the 2022 accident year for use by insurance companies in computing discounted unpaid losses under Section 846 and discounted estimated salvage recoverable under Section 832.

January 4, 2023: The IRS reminded taxpayers that final 2022 quarterly estimated tax payments are due January 17. The IRS recommends for taxpayers who earn or receive income not subject to tax withholding, such as self-employed individuals or independent contractors, to pay their taxes quarterly.

January 5, 2023: The IRS released its latest executive column in A Closer [...]

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IRS is Required to Search Tax Return Information Records to Help Determine Worker Classification

On April 5, 2017, in an unanimous court reviewed opinion, the United States Tax Court determined that disclosure of a worker’s tax return information to absolve the employer from liabilities arising out of the employer’s withholding requirement is not subject to the general prohibition against disclosing taxpayer return information pursuant to Internal Revenue Code (IRC) Section 6103, and does not shift the burden of proof to the Internal Revenue Service (IRS).

In Mescalero Apache Tribe v. Commissioner, 148 T.C. 11 (2017), the IRS determined that a number of the Mescalero Apache Tribe’s workers were not independent contractors, but employees. If the IRS prevailed in its worker reclassification determination then, as the employer, the Mescalero Apache Tribe would be jointly and severally liable for Federal income tax that should have been withheld on the workers’ earnings. To prevent double taxation, IRC Section 3402(d) provides that the IRS cannot collect from the employer the withholding tax liability if the employees have already paid income tax on their earnings. To prove its position that the workers were independent contractors and alternatively to reduce any potential withholding tax liability if the workers were classified as employees, the Mescalero Apache Tribe asked each worker to complete Form 4669, Statement of Payments Received. However, the Mescalero Apache Tribe had trouble locating each of its workers because many had moved or lived in hard-to-reach areas without phone service or basic utilities. (more…)




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