Georgia will require online retailers to file sales tax compliance returns beginning January 1, 2019, if their annual Georgia revenues exceed $250,000 or if they have more than 200 separate retail transactions within the state per calendar year.

As an alternative to collecting Georgia sales tax from its customers and filing sales tax compliance returns, the retailer may instead send “tax due” notices to all Georgia customers who purchased more than $500 of taxable goods during the year. The law, which originated as House Bill 61 and became Act 365, was signed by Governor Nathan Deal on May 8, 2018.

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The NTA is hosting a series of conversations that bring together experts to discuss relevant issues that impact and influence tax administration.

The first NTA Conversation panel discussion “An International Ethnographic Perspective on Tax Administration and Tax Compliance” was held on Dec. 1, 2017. The discussion included five international tax researchers who shared their approach to tax research and their work experiences with tax administration and tax compliance. Read More

Thinking of moving to Mexico or Belize to live comfortably? Are you making an income in Mexico or the US you have not reported to the US government? Mexico has changed their tax laws and tax penalties and you need to be aware of them. Mexico now wants to know how much money you have in your US ban accounts.

You must be compliant and Maurice Glazer shares his experience working with taxpayers who decided to move to Belize or Mexico to live. Avoid getting arrested and having your US passport confiscated by being compliant. Read More

Nina Olson, Tax Advocate

Taxpayers can claim the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) in more than one tax year, so using the audit as an opportunity to educate them about the requirements for claiming EITC is of particular benefit to them and to the IRS. If a taxpayer claims the credit in error but understands why there was an error, he or she can not only become compliant for the year of any audit, but remain compliant going forward. However, audits are expensive for both the IRS and taxpayers, and are intrusive and intimidating for the taxpayer. There are many EITC returns the IRS does not audit but identifies as containing an error. Thus, while the IRS may not have the resources to audit these taxpayers, through other cost-effective approaches, it can educate them about why they appear to have erroneously claimed EITC, and avert future noncompliance.

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As I write this post, my mind goes back to one of my very first posts about U.S. compliance issues. This post was called “What you should consider before contacting a lawyer.” Since that time I have written hundreds of post describing the problems faced by Americans abroad.

More recently

In this first post of this series, I explained the importance of the Canada U.S. tax treaty and how it provides “some protection” to Canadian citizens from U.S. tax debts.

In the second post, I explained some of the characteristics of the OVDP program and how Mr. Dewees got caught in it.

In this post, I am suggesting some possible lessons that can be learned from the story of Donald Dewees. Read More

John Stancil

When is a tip not a tip? According to the IRS, “when it is a service charge.” Under rules effective January 1, 2014, the IRS has redefined the terms “tip” and “service charge” for tax purposes. Under these rules, restaurants that charge an automatic percent charge for large parties may no longer treat these amounts as tips. Read More

Peter Scalise

Introduction                                                                                                  

The Internal Revenue Service (hereinafter the “Service”) issued on March 24 of 2016 their Announcement 2016-14 addressing the transition period implementation dates in connection with the recently revised Form 3115 entitled “Application for Change in Accounting Method which was most recently revised and released to the public in December of 2015. This presents a paradigm shift as while most tax forms and publications are updated annually, this was the first update to Form 3115 since December of 2009. Read More

Senior Director, Tax (Southern California)

The Senior Director, Tax will be responsible for directing and managing all tax compliance and tax reporting with international, federal, state and local authorities including quarterly and annual tax provision. The Senior Director, Tax will also be responsible for the following:

• Direct and manage the preparation and review of the worldwide income tax provision including the preparation of the ASC 740 calculations, current and deferred analysis, technical review of tax accounting positions (FIN48, 123R, FAS141R purchase accounting, valuation allowance analysis APB 23 Assertion), tax account reconciliations and return-to-provision reconciliation. Read More

Introduction

On Wednesday, September 10th the Internal Revenue Service (hereinafter the “Service”) Commissioner John Koskinen (hereinafter “Commissioner Koskinen”) informed a congressional subcommittee about the Service’s progress on the Affordable Care Act and the impact that tax subsidies will have on the upcoming 2015 tax season. In a hearing before the House Ways and Means Health Subcommittee, Commissioner Koskinen discussed how the Service would be processing the premium tax credit, which helps subsidize the cost of health insurance coverage for eligible taxpayers.

Commissioner Koskinen duly noted that eligible taxpayers can choose to have their Read More

The government is not required to prosecute persons whom it believes has violated the law. Certainly, in the tax context, only a small percentage of people who are known or reasonably suspected to have committed a tax crime are investigated and prosecuted. Judgment calls abound – from the first discovery of information through prosecution.

Given the limited resources that can be applied to tax prosecutions, the government must be highly selective. The ability to “pick and choose” which cases it prosecutes is the reason why it has such a high conviction rate. The message from Uncle Sam to taxpayers is this: “Sure, we don’t prosecute all tax cheats, but if we get you in our prosecution cross-hairs, you are dead.” Read More

Big Data and an ever aggressive approach by the IRS toward ferreting out Americans living abroad who are not current with their US tax filing has, so far, not yielded the results that the US government hoped for. With a tax system that is based largely upon voluntary compliance, the United States wields a big stick, and yet they realize that in reality a carrot may yield a much better result. The big stick in this circumstance is FATCA, the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act, which so far has signed on 77 thousand banks worldwide and 70 countries to report to the US where Americans reside and what accounts they hold. The carrot, on the other hand is the New Streamlined Procedure …

Come See The Softer Side Of Having Your Own Streamlined Procedure!

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TaxConnections Blog Post
Transparency –

“An old-fashioned handshake is a good way to do business—unless the IRS demands a copy”  —  Source: Cullen Hightower

“The condition of being obvious or evident.” — Source: Oxford Dictionary

IN THIS DAY and age it is important that businesses take a more open-minded approach when it comes to tax compliance. The process of transparency is not confined to the completion of a tax return and the disclosure made to the IRS. It begins with transparency between the role players involved in a transaction, the key decision makers in the business, and the people responsible for understanding the tax implications and compiling the return. Read More