Yet again, the IRS has extended the deadline for “insurers, self-insuring employers, other coverage providers, and applicable large employers to send out 1095 forms to individuals.”

They now have until March 2, 2018, to provide Forms 1095-B or 1095-C to individuals, which is a 30-day extension from the original due date of Jan. 31… This 30-day extension is automatic. Employers and providers don’t have to request it.

For individual taxpayers and the accountants that prepare their returns, this is pretty frustrating news. Those responsible for providing health insurance (insurance companies, self-insuring employers, and applicable large employers, etc.) are required by the ACA to furnish statements to employees and other covered individuals regarding the health care coverage offered to them. Individuals use this information to determine whether, for each month of the calendar year, they may claim the premium tax credit on their individual income tax returns.

Because accountants are required by law to confirm with their clients that they had insurance that meets the requirements of the mandate, not having Form 1095 in-time to prepare 2017 tax returns is a challenge. Therefore, the IRS has provided guidance indicating that other sources can be used to confirm coverage — such as insurance cards or bills — but obviously those documents don’t provide information on which months the taxpayer may not have had coverage, so relying on them or on a taxpayer’s memory of which months they are covered can be a costly mistake.

Source: IRS Extends Due Date for Employers and Providers to Issue Health Coverage Forms to Individuals in 2018 | Internal Revenue Service

NOTE: UPDATED JAN 2, 2018

Clients and long-lost friends have been calling incessantly and I’ve been overwhelmed by emails and facebook posts since the new tax legislation was passed. Most of the questions I’m getting are on the topic of an attempt at ‘parity’ between the new, permanently lower C-corp tax rates, and the tax rates paid by sole proprietors and flow-through entities.

So thank goodness that my favorite tax writer, Tony Nitti, has done it again. He’s managed to make the most asinine, overly-complex piece of tax law comprehensible. Well, mostly. Given that the congressmen that passed the law have clearly never read any of it, there’s only so far you can go.

Tony’s recent article in Forbes, Tax Geek Tuesday: Making Sense Of The New ‘20% Qualified Business Income Deduction’, does its best to interpret, analyze, and instruct on the topic of the new mysterious 20% income deduction for flow-through entities. Tony states:

On its surface, Section 199A will allow owners of sole proprietorships, S corporations and partnerships — and yes, even stand-alone rental properties reported on Schedule E —  to take a deduction of 20% against their income from the business. The result of such a provision is to reduce the effective top rate on these types of business income from 40.8% under current law to 29.6% under the new law (a new 37% top rate * a 20% deduction= 29.6%).

Courtesy of this new deduction, sole proprietors and owners of flow-through businesses retain their competitive rate advantage over C corporations: it is 10% under current law, and will be 10% under the new law (39.8% versus 29.6%).

He reviews the following areas, being careful to note what we don’t know (given the rushed passing of this law and the lack of precedent or regulations, there’s a lot of that):

• Overview of the QBI Deduction
• Qualified Business Income
• W-2 Limitations
• Exception to W-2 Wage Limitations
• Phase-In of W-2 Limitations
• Treatment of “Specified Service Trades or Businesses”
• Phase-Out of Deduction for Specified Service Businesses
• Ancillary Issues

He somehow manages to do this all with illustrations using various scenarios and examples, and above all — humor. Again, he stresses that “Section 199A, however, is in its infancy. We don’t have regulations.” There are “definitional debates” all over the internet already… and without any precedent from court cases on some of the related topics, we’re likely to see a lot of loopholes until this section makes its way through the justice system.

At 10,000 words, it’s a long one, but it’s worth the read. This is the shortest, clearest, and most entertaining description I’ve seen so far of this particularly messy section of the new tax code. As Tony says, “with no regulations, no form instructions, and most unfortunate of all, no one who helped craft the bill or vote on the thing who actually understands what it says, it may be a while before clarity is forthcoming.”

UPDATE: January 2, 2018 — some clarity and additional explanation of complex areas came out in another Nitti article, a follow-up to the one noted above, in which he interviews a former IRS attorney about this new section of the law. It fills in some gaps in the last article, and the two of them discuss additional potential issues, as well as a timeline for technical corrections. My biggest take-away is that this thorny section of the code will be causing us all massive headaches well into 2019.

The IRS made two announcements yesterday about filing dates. One is that for Tax Year 2016, E-File closes this Saturday, November 18; after that, disaster victims and others need to file on paper.

While most individuals have already filed their 2016 federal tax returns, certain taxpayers may qualify for an extension until Jan. 31, 2018. This includes taxpayers who live in a federally declared disaster area, have a U.S. tax filing obligation, and had previously obtained a valid 6-month extension of time to file their federal tax return.

The second announcement is that the IRS has not yet set the date on which they will be accepting Tax Year 2017 returns.

Speculation on the Internet that the IRS will begin accepting tax returns on Jan. 22 or after the Martin Luther King Jr. Day holiday in January is inaccurate and misleading; no such date has been set.

The IRS must keep an eye on pending legislation and extender tax provisions that may be renewed, and then finish updating programming and processing systems before they can announce a filing season start-date.

However, they also explain that:

Due to law changes first affecting last year’s returns, the IRS cannot issue refunds for tax returns claiming the EITC or ACTC before mid-February. This law requires the IRS to hold the entire refund — even the portion not associated with the EITC or ACTC. However, there is no need to wait to file such returns since the IRS will process them to the point of refund and then begin refund release when permitted by law.

Accounting Today, October 19, 2017 —

The Internal Revenue Service said that for the upcoming 2018 filing season, it‎ will not accept electronically filed tax returns where the taxpayer does not address the health coverage requirements of the Affordable Care Act, the first tax season it has refused to accept such returns.‎

In an update Friday to the web page of its ACA Information Center for Tax Professionals, the IRS said it will not accept the electronic tax return until the taxpayer indicates whether they had coverage, had an exemption or will make a shared responsibility payment. On top of that, the IRS said tax returns filed on paper that don’t address the health coverage requirements may be suspended pending the receipt of additional information and any refunds may be delayed.

Full article here: IRS won’t accept returns next year without health coverage | Accounting Today

When a taxpayer who has a tax filing requirement fails to file a tax return, the IRS is allowed to use third-party information to determine a tax liability and assess it. The IRS handles these cases mostly through the ASFR Program, which enforces filing compliance against taxpayers who haven’t filed individual income tax returns but seem to owe a lot of money in taxes.

“The Automated Substitute for Return (AFSR) program is a component of our collection strategy to promote filing compliance,” wrote Mary Beth Murphy, commissioner of the IRS’s Small Business/Self-Employed Division, in response to the report. “Attempting to bring noncompliant taxpayers into compliance ensures fairness and reduces the burden on taxpayers who fully pay their taxes on time. Resource constraints have forced us to make difficult decisions with respect to some of our programs, even those that provide clear benefits to tax administration. Because a nonfiler strategy is important to our mission, we are currently working to develop one that fits within the current and future IRS operating environment, requiring fewer human resources, while providing an opportunity for us to achieve our desired outcomes.”

Full story here: IRS scales back program to go after people who don’t file taxes | Accounting Today