Feature Article

On November 10, 2022, President Joe Biden nominated Danny Werfel to succeed Chuck Rettig as Commissioner of Internal Revenue.i Danny—or more formally, Daniel I.—Werfel testified on February 15, 2023, before the Senate Finance Committee, led by C... Robert Kerr, EA

Capitol Corner

For the first time, Congress has provided substantial long-term funding for the IRS. The unprecedented rebuilding program, which includes $80 billion of IRS funding over 10 years under the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA, P.L. 117-... Charles O. Rossotti

Capitol Corner

Enrolled agents and other tax professionals are not the only ones who get busy during tax season; Congress also takes a keen interest in tax law and tax administration during our busiest time of year. With that in mind, the NAEA Government Relations team got busy ad... Jennifer MacMillan, EA

Capitol Corner

Ask any experienced enrolled agent and he or she will tell you two things about the current tax system: IRS has fewer, more poorly trained personnel than at any time in the last 30 years; and at the same time, he or she can tell you that there is a proliferation of incompetent and (at ti... Jeffery S. Trinca, JD

Capitol Corner

If at first you do not succeed, try and try again. We expect IRS reform may be one of the few tax legislative vehicles that moves through Congress this year. Bipartisan, bicameral efforts to pass a reform bill failed at the last minute before the end of the last Congress. But that failure does not seem to have we... Recommendations of the National Association of Enrolled Agents

Capitol Corner

While some of us are still recovering from our sunburns at the beach, many of us are looking at the shorter days and are beginning to worry if IRS has enough time to fully implement the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA) in time for the 2019 filing season. Guidance, in the form of proposed regulations, notices, and forms and instructions, has certainly been helpful and much appreciated, but not having finalized these items is getting danger... Jeffery S. Trinca, JD

Feature Article

It is likely you will encounter an IRS revenue officer who is difficult, unyielding, and possibly aggressive. You may perceive that the revenue officer's job is to make your and your client’s lives difficult. However, the truth is very different. Sure, a collection case making its way to a revenue officer is deemed serious by the IRS. After all, revenue officers are the IRS’s most experienced and sophisticated collection agents. Their foc... Howard S. Levy, JD

Feature Article

As a tax professional, what do you do when you encounter a client who has a problem or an issue which you have limited familiarity with or experience with? Do you prefer the client to another practitioner? Do you contact a colleague (or post a question in a forum) and hope that any advice that you receive will be sound? Or do you tell the client that you will do some additional research on the issue and get back to him? Your course of act... John G. (“Jack”) Wood, EA

Feature Article

Did you know the IRS requires its agents to perform a minimum income probe on every audit? And did you know that a minimum income probe can result in the IRS agent using indirect methods of proving income? If you have a client who is being audited—and even if you don’t—it is to your advantage to learn everything you can about indirect methods of proving income. Minimum income probes are discussed as part of the examination process governed... Jo-Ann Weiner, EA

Feature Article

Why would anyone subject themselves to reading the Internal Revenue Code? It’s not exactly a spellbinding novel, or even an interesting nonfiction work on your favorite topic, unless your favorite topic is tax law. When most people think of the Code, they think of it as being an impenetrable morass of legalese gobbledygook, more useful as a cure for insomnia than a practical resource for the tax professional. But being able to effecti... Carolyn Richardson, EA

Feature Article

Single TAX RATES                                                                                                                                           2015                                                              2016 10% bracket tops at 9,225 9,275 15% bracket tops atDavid Mellem, EA