New IRS Tax Audit Rules for Partnerships (including LLCs taxed as partnerships)

February 11, 2019

IRS Tax Audit Rules for Partnerships (including LLCs taxed as partnerships)

The Bipartisan Budget Act of 2015 (“Act”) made significant changes to the Internal Revenue Service’s partnership audit rules effective for partnership tax years beginning in 2018. How the new audit rules will affect a partnership and its partners will depend, in large part, on choices the partnership, the partnership representative, and/or the partners make or fail to make. The changes are expected to dramatically increase the audit rates for partnerships and will require partners to carefully review, if not revise, their partnership’s operating agreement.

Careful planning today will help mitigate any unfavorable consequence.

Important new provisions that may impact you:

• The IRS may collect any additional tax, interest, and penalty directly from the partnership rather than from the
partners (the tax could be collected at the highest individual tax rate).
• Current partners could be responsible for tax liabilities of prior partners.
• New elections and opt-outs will be available and your agreement may need revision to specify who makes these decisions.
• There are many new tax terms and concepts that will likely require you to adjust your partnership’s operating agreement.

New Partnership Representative Role

Under the new rules, the designated partnership representative has the “sole and exclusive authority” to act on behalf of the partnership and to bind all partners with respect to partnership matters subject to the partnership audit rules. This authority includes, but is not limited to, making relevant elections, representing the partnership during an audit, negotiating and agreeing (or disagreeing) to settle with the IRS, and seeking judicial review of an IRS adjustment. In the absence of an appointed person, the IRS has the discretion to pick a partnership representative; therefore, partnership and LLC agreements should be revised to specify who will act as the partnership representative.

Available options for Partnerships to “elect out” of the new audit rules

Small partnerships (100 or fewer eligible partners) may choose to “opt out” of the new partnership audit rules by making an annual election on a timely filed Form 1065 for the applicable tax year. The option to “opt out” of a partnership level audit is not available to any partnership that has trusts or partnerships (including LLCs taxed as partnerships) as partners.

Another option, the “push out” election, is available to partnerships once a notice of final partnership adjustment is issued. The partnership would need to make a timely election within 45 days of receiving a notice of final partnership adjustment to “push out” the assessment to the individuals that were partners during the audited tax year. This election comes at a cost. The rate of interest assessed on underpaid taxes rises two percentage points if this election is utilized; however, the increased interest rate may be acceptable if the current ownership is different than the year audited.

Under the options detailed above, the partnership would pass through the tax adjustment to the persons who were partners during the audited tax year by issuing amended Schedules K-1. Each partner receiving an amended Schedule K-1 would be required to amend their returns for the audited tax year.

Items requiring your attention:

• Discuss this information with your fellow partners/members;
• Choose a Partnership Representative;
• Contact your lawyer to update the partnership agreement and/or LLC operating agreement, as needed;
• Once the partnership agreement has been updated, have your lawyer provide us a complete copy of the partnership / LLC
agreement including all amendments, thereto.

Please call us if you would like to discuss these new partnership changes and review your planning opportunities.

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IRS Commish Heading For Early Retirement?

Seems as if that’s pretty much how it’s looking – the House Judiciary Committee has scheduled hearings to examine alleged misconduct by Commish Koskinen, we hear.  On May 24 (just next week) the Judiciary Committee will hear the findings of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee’s investigation of the Chief Revenooer!

Congressman Jim Jordan (R-Oh) has expressed his view thusly:  “I applaud Chairman Goodlatte’s decision to hold hearings on the resolution for impeachment of IRS Commissioner John Koskinen.  Commissioner Koskinen failed to fulfill his duty to the American people by allowing back-up tapes containing potentially 24,000 emails to be destroyed.  He failed to inform Congress about the destruction of these back-up tapes in a timely manner……Alexander Hamilton wrote in the Federalist papers that impeachment should be used to protect the public against ‘the abuse or violation of some public trust.’  Commissioner Koskinen has most assuredly violated the public trust…….”Read More

Celebrate Your Freedom!

Tax Freedom, that is!  You actually just achieved it about a week ago, according to the Tax Foundation.  “Tax Freedom Day” 2016 just passed – on April 24, or 114 days (not counting “Leap Day”) into the new year.  And indeed, “Freedom” comes one day earlier than last year!

That’s the good news.  You will mope when you hear that Americans will spend more on taxes in 2016 than they will on food, clothing, and housing combined!  And when you include Federal borrowing, Tax Freedom Day won’t hit until May 10!  (The latest ever deficit-inclusive Tax Freedom Day occurred during World War II – on May 25, 1945.)Read More

IRS: No Deduction For Spiffy Duds!

So you think the fact that you spend some big bucks on the clothes you wear to work – in order to impress your customers and others – is reason enough to have Uncle Sam subsidize your expenditure.

Not so, say the Revenooers, as most recently expressed in the Tax Court case of Sofien Beltifa.  This guy was employed by a restaurant in New York City in 2011 as a bartender/manager.  His duties included “calling in” liquor orders, taking liquor deliveries, and ensuring that the bar was fully stocked at all times.  The restaurant did not require its employees to wear a uniform, though it did request employees to wear an all black ensemble (shirt, tie, pants) while working.  The taxpayer believed it was necessary to look his best because he was one of the faces of the restaurant.  “When you enter, you just see me and then you walk through,” he testified.  “You see the host, you see me.  I’ve got to look presentable.”Read More

Revenooers Reveal This Year’s “Dirty Dozen” Tax Scams

Always vigilant to the endless raft of tax shenanigans going on out there, IRS has released its latest list of favorites – warning taxpayers to be alert to the most egregious potential problems lurking.

• Identity theft – This is the biggie.  IRS continues to hunt down and prosecute the crooks filing false tax returns using other folks’ social security numbers to secure refunds to which the bad guys are not entitled.
• Phone scams – We’ve even received one of these – a call from a bad guy impersonating a real Revenooer claiming that unless we pay (a phony “unpaid tax” amount) arrest and other bad things awaits us.
• Phishing – Though IRS never communicates with taxpayers about unpaid balances, the bad guys do, in an effort to steal personal information.  IRS warns you to be wary of strange emails and websites that are likely nothing more than invitations which, if accepted, will expose your personal information to theft.
• Return preparer fraud – Deal with reputable professionals only, and beware of preparers, for example, who may pop up with a store front near you, promising all kinds of tax goodies if you engage them.
• Offshore tax avoidance – IRS has gotten pretty good at nipping this one in the bud, but some folks still think they can hide assets and/or income abroad, keeping IRS at bay.  This can be really bad medicine and folks who play this game will find their pocket book much lighter if/when IRS catches up, not to mention the possibility of a stay in the slammer.
• Inflated refund claims – Stay away from any preparer who asks you to sign a blank return, promises a big refund before even reviewing your records, or charges fees based on a percentage of your refund!
• Fake charities – Make sure your donations go to only legit charities and not ones with “sound alike” names to those we all know and love.  If in doubt, check with IRS first (www.irs.gov) who keeps a list of all charities which are truly tax exempt organizations.
• Falsely padding deductions on returns – this one speaks for itself.  Obviously a “no-no.”
• Excessive claims for business credits – The fuel tax credit and research credit are high on IRS list of those credits which often are used by cheaters.
• Falsifying income to claim credits – IRS warns you not to “invent” income so you can incorrectly qualify for such items as the earned income tax credit!
• Abusive tax shelters – This one, too, used to be of more concern to IRS, which has become pretty good at shutting down these tax avoidance schemes, and even putting some of the folks pushing them in the clink.  If a peddler tries to sell you on one of these, and it “sounds too good to be true,” the likelihood is that it is.
• Frivolous tax arguments – Believe it or not, there are still some promoters out there who try to encourage taxpayers to make unreasonable and outlandish claims (often based on phony constitutional arguments, or claiming that the income tax law is illegal) in an effort to reduce one’s tax liability.  Amuse yourself by reading about these blokes and their ridiculous arguments, but that should be as far as you go.  And by the way, the penalty for filing a frivolous return is $5,000.Read More

New Rule: IRS No Longer Hires Tax Cheats

Comforting, isn’t it?  To learn that IRS has adopted policies that prohibit its employees who cheat on their own taxes to work for Uncle Sam!

“I have no indication that anyone working for the IRS has not followed the updated procedures,” quoth Commish Koskinen in recent testimony before the Senate Finance Committee.

Recall that a report last year by the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration (TIGTA) found that 1,580 IRS employees had willfully failed to pay their taxes.  Of those, TIGTA found 61 percent retained their jobs.Read More

Magnanimous Obama Proposes Retirement Savings Incentives

REVENOOER RANTS – 2/8/16

Lest we be chastised for not giving credit where credit is due, we have to hand it to Obama for recently announcing much needed retirement incentives which will be included in his 2017 budget to be announced this week.  The simple fact is that, unlike the situation in our parents’ generation, most folks just don’t work their entire career with one company, which typically stashed away dough to fund employees’ retirement years.  Further, Obama notes that fewer than 10% of workers without access to a workplace retirement plan contribute to a retirement savings plan of their own.  So, government now proposes to encourage more employers to offer plans and create alternative savings arrangements for folks whose employer does not offer a plan.  To wit:

• A proposal to triple the existing “startup” credit so small employers which begin offering a retirement plan would receive a tax credit of $1,500 per year for up to three years.  Further, small employers which already offer a plan and add auto-enrollment would get a tax credit of $500 per year for up to three years.
• For the benefit of part-time workers, a proposal to require that employees who have worked for an employer for at least 500 hours per year for at least three years be eligible to participate in the employer’s existing plan.
• A proposal which would require employers with more than 10 employees who do not presently offer a retirement plan to automatically enroll their workers in an IRA.  Employers with 100 or less employees that offer an auto-IRA would receive a tax credit of up to $3,000.
• A proposal to increase the “portability” of retirement savings, in cases of employees who change employers through the course of their working life.Read More

Tax Court Reiterates Employee/Independent Contractor Distinction

Seems like an issue which just won’t go away – the question of whether a worker bee is an employee, or an independent contractor.  Makes a big difference in how the bloke reports his expenses.  If he’s an employee, those expenses go on Schedule A as itemized deductions, and are likely to be subjected to some limitations in the deductible total.  If he’s a contractor, the expenses go on his Schedule C, and further any net profit he reports there can qualify him for retirement plan deductible contributions as well.

So here comes taxpayer Jorge Quintanilla who, the Court notes, is an exceptionally skilled production worker on approximately 150 commercials shot in Southern California.  Jorge believed he qualified as a contractor and reported his expenses on Schedule C as noted above.  The Court further notes that the legal distinction between an independent contractor and a common-law employee is settled as a general matter, though it’s often murky in application.  Courts of various stripes, however, have set forth certain factors over the years, intended to guide one to the proper conclusion as to employee versus contractor, including:Read More

Watch out for “Hillarytax”

So, here we go – head first into another election year!  And you Hillary fans, out there, should not forget her recent promise to go even beyond Obama’s desired tax schemes, and “to make sure the effective tax rate paid by millionaires reflects a truly fair tax system,” according to one of her aide’s recently.

Recall that Obama, once upon a time, propounded the so-called “Buffett Rule” (named for his buddy, Warren Buffett, billionaire investor.)  Obama thinks taxpayers with adjusted gross incomes exceeding $2 million should pay a minimum tax rate of 30% – vastly higher than the rate applicable to various forms of investment income presently taxed at a top rate of 23.8%.

“The Buffett Rule says that millionaires should pay at least 30% income tax rates….and I want to go even farther,” chirped Hillary recently.  “I want to be the president of the struggling, the striving and the successful.”

Nice.

And obviously former Congressional Budget Office Director Doug Elmendorf likes Hillary’s prescription.  Quoth Doug, “If we make changes to federal spending and taxes, we should make them in ways that impose most of the burden on the affluent, because those are the people who have benefited the most from growth in output and income over the past few decades.”

Unstated by Dougie:  those are also the folks who take the risks and invest the capital which fuels growth and provides jobs, whom he and Hillary would propose to punish.

And isn’t it time somebody stood up to the morons pleading for abolition of the IRS?  We hold the Revenooers in as low esteem as anybody, but let’s get real.  Even National Taxpayer Advocate Nina Olson, in recently suggesting that IRS could, indeed, be smaller, points out the notion that the agency could be abolished is basically impractical.

“I don’t know how people think that would happen,” quoth Nina.  “People talk about, ‘Oh, all we need is a postcard’ (to file taxes on).  Well, you’re going to need some agency that you send a postcard to, and you’re going to need some employees to process that postcard.”

Not to mention someone to administer the system’s complex laws and regulations.

CONSULT YOUR TAX ADVISOR – This article contains general information about various tax matters.  You should consult your CPA regarding the implications to your own particular situation.

Jeff Quinn, the author of this article, is retired from the firm of Ashley Quinn, CPAs and Consultants, Ltd., with offices in Incline Village and Reno.  He welcomes comments at [email protected].

IRS Hangs Tough On IRA 60 Day Rollover Rule

We’ve reported, many times, about various situations in which beleaguered taxpayers have been unable to meet the requisite 60 day IRA rollover rule (to avoid treating the dough coming out of the IRA in the first instance to be taxable), and IRS has bent over – showing its “kinder and gentler” side and not slapping the taxpayer with penalties.  Most of these cases have fact patterns indicating the delinquency was not the taxpayer’s fault, but often times that of the IRA custodian because of that guy’s administrative delays.

But in a recent private letter ruling, IRS refused to waive the 60 day rollover requirement for a taxpayer whose attempt to use an IRA distribution to buy an interest in a partnership failed because the IRA custodian couldn’t hold the interest – a mistake that the taxpayer did not learn of for almost a year.  In response to the taxpayer’s plea that the timeliness failure was due to his receipt of incorrect advice, IRS hung tough on the notion that the failure was in fact due to his decision to use IRA proceeds to fund a business venture.

IRS will consider several factors in determining whether to waive the 60 day rollover requirement, including time elapsed since the distribution, inability to complete the rollover due to death, disability, hospitalization, incarceration, restrictions imposed by a foreign country, postal error, errors committed by a financial institutions, etc.

In this case, the taxpayer’s financial advisor prepared the paperwork for the taxpayer to sign, and on November 21, 2012, the custodian issued a check payable to the partnership.  The taxpayer intended that his IRA purchase the shares, and that they be held by the custodian.

But as it turned out, due to some technicality in the partnership agreement, the custodian was eventually unable to hold the investment on behalf of the IRA.  The taxpayer believed that the financial advisor should have prepared paperwork to transfer the amount to a financial institution that could have held the partnership interest on behalf of the IRA.  The problem was not discovered until October of 2013 – obviously well beyond the 60 day rollover period.

Right or wrong, IRS conclusion, here, was that taxpayer’s failure to complete a timely rollover wasn’t due to any of the factors described above which have been held in the past to constitute valid excuses, but instead was due to his choice to use the IRA proceeds to fund a business venture.

Result:  taxpayer is forced to include the distribution in his taxable income for 2012.

And did you hear the latest from Hillary’s campaign re her tax proposals?  $250 billion in direct “investment” over the next five years.  Plus an additional $25 billion to fund a “national infrastructure bank.”  None of this dough comes from the “middle class,” of course, whose taxes Hillary would “cut.”  Hillary wants to give those folk “a raise,” while she hits the top 3% of earners to pay for all of this largesse.

Heard that one before?  How much is enough?

CONSULT YOUR TAX ADVISOR – This article contains general information about various tax matters.  You should consult your CPA regarding the implications to your own particular situation.

Jeff Quinn, the author of this article, is a shareholder in Ashley Quinn, CPAs and Consultants, Ltd., with offices in Incline Village and Reno.  He welcomes comments at [email protected].

When is IRA Contribution Deductible?

Not really a trick question – the law permits deduction of an IRA contribution in the tax year it is actually made – with one little modification:  you can still deduct your 2015 contribution, f’rinstance, if you deposit it no later than April 15, 2016.

So here come taxpayers Mr. and Mrs.  Stephen J. Dunn – he a tax lawyer, no less –  to butt heads with the Tax Court on this question.  During the first part of 2008, Dunn was employed by a private law firm, and was an “active participant” in that firm’s qualified retirement plan.  (He became self-employed in late 2008 and remained self-employed through the end of 2010.)  Recall that for taxpayers with incomes above a certain level, IRA contributions are not deductible when one is an “active participant” in an employer plan.  Nonetheless, Dunn claimed a deduction for his IRA contribution in 2008.  Upon audit, the Revenooers disallowed the deduction because of the “active participant” status.  But the taxpayer concocted the somewhat novel argument that the 2008 IRA contribution was an “excess contribution” which could be carried forward or, alternatively, should be deemed to have been made for 2009.

“No dice” concluded the Tax Court.  Each IRA contribution year stands on its own.  And, adding insult to injury, clipped Dunn for the “accuracy-related penalty,” based on the fact that as an experienced attorney, he should have known better that his arguments “have no support in the Code, the regulations, relevant case law, or basic tax principles.”

So there.

And we were struck by the common sense words of Thomas Sowell, the Rose and Milton Friedman Senior Fellow on Public Policy at the Hoover Institution, as published in the Fall 2015 edition of the Hoover Digest.  To wit:

“In a recent panel discussion on poverty at Georgetown University, President

Barack Obama gave another demonstration of his mastery of rhetoric—and

disregard of reality……In Obama’s rhetoric, those who produced the wealth

that politicians want to grab……are called “society’s lottery winners.”  Was Bill

Gates a lottery winner?  Or did he produce and sell a computer operating system that allows

billions of people around the world to use computers, without knowing anything

about the inner workings of this complex technology?  Was Henry Ford a lottery

winner?  Or did he revolutionize the production of automobiles, bringing the price

down to the point where cars were no longer luxuries of the rich but vehicles that

millions of ordinary people could afford, greatly expanding the scope of their lives?

Most people who want to redistribute wealth don’t want to talk about

how that wealth was produced in the first place.

They just want “the rich” to pay their undefined “fair share” of taxes.  This share

must remain undefined because all it really means is “more.”  Once you have

defined it –whether at 30 percent, 60 percent, or 90 percent—you won’t be able

to come back for more.”

CONSULT YOUR TAX ADVISOR – This article contains general information about various tax matters.  You should consult your CPA regarding the implications to your own particular situation.

Jeff Quinn, the author of this article, is a shareholder in Ashley Quinn, CPAs and Consultants, Ltd., with offices in Incline Village and Reno.  He welcomes comments at [email protected].

Good News/Bad News From Low Inflation Rate

If there’s anything good that may have come from Obama’s actions (or inactions, as the case may be) lately it’s the fact that inflation is little or none in the last year or so.

The bad news, of course, is that Social Security recipients can expect zero in the way of a raise, next year, because any annual cost of living increases arise when the consumer price index moves upward.  The good news, however, is that worker bees will experience no increase in the amount of their annual earnings which will be subject to Social Security and Medicare taxes.  Thus, for 2016 the combined FICA and Medicare tax rate will remain at 15.3%, paid half each by the worker and his employer.  Likewise, there will be no change in the tax rates or earnings base applicable to self-employed folk.

And speaking of FICA, an aspect of this annoying levy has long irked folks whose employment arrangements include their earning of certain forms of “deferred compensation.”  And a recent decision of the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit (in the case of Mr. Balestra) brings this annoying law front and center.

Seems Mr. Balestra was an employee of United Airlines (UAL) until his retirement in 2004.  He had earned some “nonqualified deferred compensation” which had not been paid as of his retirement date, upon which date the full present value of his deferred comp was included in the FICA tax base, resulting in FICA withholding on income which he didn’t receive as of that point in time!  And unfortunately, UAL had entered bankruptcy in 2002, two years before our boy’s retirement date.  Consequently, of course, UAL’s obligation to pay Balestra’s deferred comp was ultimately discharged, with the majority of the benefits never having actually been paid to Balestra.  In 2010, UAL made the final payments to creditors as required under its bankruptcy plan, leaving Balestra essentially out in the cold – no deferred comp, despite FICA having been paid by him!

O tempora, O mores!

Balestra went to Court, seeking a refund of the FICA withheld, but the Revenooers and the Courts told him to take a hike.

Nice.

And finally, this week, we recently learned via The Wall Street Journal that the Tax Foundation’s annual International Tax Competitiveness Index finds that, once again, the U.S. of A. ranks a dismal 32^nd out of 34 industrialized nations.

The index measures various factors that determine how “friendly” a government is to business and investment, including the amount of taxation and the complexity of tax rules.  While Uncle Sam gets credit for not imposing any sort of “value added tax” over and above all of the other taxes, the U.S. comes in “dead last” among the 34 developed countries in the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) when it comes to taxing corporate income!  The U.S. top marginal corporate rate of 39% is a whopping 14 points above the OECD average of 25%!

Don’t laugh, but Estonia again cops the top ranking in this year’s index – with a flat 20% rate on both personal and corporate income – and zero tax on personal dividend income!

CONSULT YOUR TAX ADVISOR – This article contains general information about various tax matters.  You should consult your CPA regarding the implications to your own particular situation.

Jeff Quinn, the author of this article, is a shareholder in Ashley Quinn, CPAs and Consultants, with offices in Incline Village and Reno.  He can be reached at [email protected].

Court Slaps Private Foundation: Private Inurement

A recent decision of a district court in the District of Columbia agreed with the Revenooers, who actually revoked the tax exempt status of a foundation because some of its activities resulted in extraordinary benefits (“private inurement,” to use the vernacular of the bureaucrats) to the entity’s founder’s family.

Seems a decedent’s estate gave about $2.5 million to a foundation which had previously been put in place.  The estate, of course, took a charitable deduction for estate tax purposes, resulting in zero, zip, nada being paid in estate taxes.Read More

“Beware of Scammers”, Warn Revenooers

Apparently taking note of ever-increasingly blatant tactics foisted upon we and thee by scammers, IRS recently issued a new warning to taxpayers.

These thieves, you see, pop up by telephone, emails and letters on authentic-looking letterhead, in an effort to trick taxpayers into providing personal financial information, or scare folks into making a payment to the criminal, ostensibly in settlement of the target’s delinquent tax account.Read More

IRS Commish Seat Getting Hotter

If you listen to U.S. District Court Judge Emmet Sullivan, anyway.

Judicial Watch recently announced that Sullivan has threatened to hold IRS Commissioner Koskinen (and Justice Department attorneys!) in contempt of court after IRS failed to produce status reports and recently obtained emails of Lois Lerner.Read More