Tax Justice Warriors

The tax season now starts February 12!

In looking at a crash course in taxes, I decided the easiest way to talk with someone about several concepts was to review the form 1040. In part two, I go through the second page of form 1040. It introduces the concepts of the tax due after finding taxable income, nonrefundable credits, other taxes (including self-employment tax), withholding, estimated tax payments, refundable credits and other total payments, leading to the refund or amount owed.

Going through this series of concepts is a great way to introduce several basic topics that are easily expanded upon to talk about for tax controversy case work. For students or others who are new to tax, digging into Form 1040 and moving next to Publication 17 are great places to explore.

In looking at a crash course in taxes, I decided the easiest way to talk with someone about several concepts was to review the form 1040. In part one, I will go through the first page of form 1040. It introduces the concepts of filing status, dependents, income, adjustments to income (which results in adjusted gross income), deductions – the choice of standard or itemized deductions, and taxable income.

Going through this series of concepts is a great way to introduce several basic topics that are easily expanded upon to talk about for tax controversy case work. For students or others who are new to tax, digging into Form 1040 and moving next to Publication 17 are great places to explore.

I am sure many of you have benefited from the economic impact payments (also called stimulus payments). In past episodes, I discussed different people who should have received those payments in 2020. Now, we are looking at another round of the economic impact payments in 2021.

For those who should have received payments but did not, there is a method for reconciling the payments on the 2020 tax return. It is called the recovery rebate credit.

I talk through some of the procedure for the recovery rebate credit and how it will affect people with their economic impact payments. For example, the credit is treated as a non-refundable credit and then converts to a refundable credit. You should have a copy of Notice 1444 when preparing your taxes and considering the recovery rebate credit. These tips and more are in this episode.

Well, 2020 was a wild year. What will 2021 bring? I am not going to try to predict the coming year. After all, who could have predicted the pandemic for 2020? I am going to talk a bit broadly about the coming year, but also I am going to talk through some personal career goals regarding taxes for the next year. A shorter episode as we move into the new year!

Merry Christmas!

This is a recap of the 2021 Annual LITC Grantee Conference, which was entirely virtual for the first time in December 2020. The first week focused on a tax bootcamp and training for financial reporting. The second week was the advanced training and other plenary sessions. Several prominent speakers from the IRS and the U.S. Tax Court gave updates on their programs for this point in the pandemic.

For the last two episodes, I went into more depth on my two presentations during the conference. I hope you have happy holidays as we turn to 2021.

2020 – the year in review. Not much happened this year, right?

Seriously – quite a bit happened inside the tax world and beyond based on the pandemic. For the Low Income Taxpayer Clinic Grantee Conference, I am on a panel discussing the year in review for taxes. The others are talking about the statutory changes and specific cases that affected the tax world. I will be discussing administrative changes from the IRS and the Tax Court.

This episode will go over that panel, but I also discuss what I personally worked on this year. I review my goals for 2020. On my first episode of next year, I will discuss what goals I have regarding 2021. Hopefully this pandemic business will not affect us quite so much.

I hope you are having happy holidays and staying safe!

In the 2021 LITC Grantee Conference, I am giving a presentation on Collections (Part 1). This presentation is part of a series of tax bootcamp presentations for LITC practitioners new to the tax field.

On this episode, I give a summary of items I discuss – the main focus is liens, levies and collection due process. Along the way, I give an update on progress for the Collection Due Process Summit Initiative and give a schedule for the next few episodes.

Next week – 2020 Year in Review!

This episode will look at upcoming training for those involved with Low Income Taxpayer Clinics. I provide details on the bootcamp, plenary and breakout sessions, plus other sessions. I will be speaking in two sessions. I hope this helps those of you involved in LITCs to think about the conference. For others, perhaps this will encourage you to volunteer or otherwise get involved in supporting your local LITC.

A look at Form 2848 processing with the CAF Unit.  Currently, there are processing delays.  Part of that is due to the COVID pandemic, but part of it is due to the time of year as there are some shutdowns as IRS employees use vacation time.

But, wait – there’s more!  Sharyn Fisk, Director of the IRS Office of Professional Responsibility, submitted “Electronic Signature Options Will Simplify Third-Party Authorizations” on November 19, 2020, in CL-20-06.  The article details the plans for 2021 regarding what will be acceptable regarding electronic signatures with Form 2848 and Form 8821.  The IRS balances ease of access with concerns about fraud or identity theft.  Hopefully, more individuals can submit these forms to the IRS without having to worry about spreading the pandemic by being in the same room together.

I hope you had a Happy Thanksgiving and will have a safe holiday season!

Earlier this week, I was on the Taxgirl podcast. We spoke in depth about Low Income Taxpayer Clinics.

That episode is available here:

https://www.taxgirl.com/2020/11/17/tax-dispute-law-assistance-through-the-litc/

Taxgirl (Kelly Phillips Erb) also agreed to an interview on this podcast. You may know her as one of the public faces of taxes as she often writes for Forbes and Bloomberg. She also blogs and recently started her podcast through her website.

On this episode, she talks about the origins of the Taxgirl name, how she came to write for Forbes, about her private practice, and how she would spend a blank check for tax reform.

They were fun conversations on both podcasts so please tune in to both episodes.