Antiquated IRS IT Systems May Affect Taxpayers and Preparers
The IRS’s legacy IT infrastructure continues to cause outages, erroneous notices and delayed refunds, despite a $80 billion modernization push funded by the 2022 Inflation Reduction Act. High‑profile failures—including the 2018 e‑file blackout and 2021 CP59 notice error—highlight vulnerabilities in core subsystems such as the Individual Master File. Staffing cuts have shrunk the workforce by roughly 26% to under 76,000 employees, further straining the upgrade effort. While the agency pauses parts of its plan to assess AI integration, taxpayers and tax preparers still face tangible risks from the aging systems.
Addressing Capital Gains
In 2026 investors face capital‑gain pressure from deferred Opportunity Fund gains and strong stock‑market returns, especially from the Magnificent 7. Strategies include exchange funds, QOZ deferrals, charitable remainder trusts, hedging, direct indexing with tax‑loss harvesting, and long/short portfolios. Direct indexing loses...
Questions About the Classification of Joint Ventures for Accounting Purposes
FASB’s ASU 2023‑05, effective Jan 1 2025, mandates fair‑value measurement of assets and liabilities contributed to new joint ventures, ending the prior option to use carrying values. The update aims to standardize JV accounting but leaves classification ambiguous, requiring entities to navigate...
The Scope of Personal Liability for Trust Fund Tax in the State of New York
The article outlines how New York State imposes personal liability for trust fund taxes, including payroll withholding and sales taxes. It explains that the state mirrors the federal “willfulness” test for payroll tax, while sales tax liability does not require...
The Benefits (and Risks) of Selling an Accounting Practice to Private Equity
Private equity (PE) is increasingly targeting U.S. accounting firms, offering partners cash payouts, favorable capital‑gain treatment, and rollover equity that can yield future upside. A PE transaction can inject capital for technology, talent acquisition, and growth while offloading back‑office burdens,...
Required Roth Catch-Up Contributions for 2026
The Secure 2.0 Act mandates that employees whose prior‑year FICA wages exceed $145,000 must make catch‑up contributions to 401(k), 403(b) or 457 plans as designated Roth contributions beginning in taxable years after December 31 2025. A two‑year administrative transition postpones enforcement until after...
The Bipartisan Budget Act Audit Regime
The Bipartisan Budget Act of 2015 introduced a centralized audit system for partnerships, restricting Administrative Adjustment Requests (AARs) once the IRS issues a Notice of Administrative Proceeding (NAP). This limitation can trap taxpayers, as illustrated by an estate‑partnership scenario where...
SALT Round-Up—Current Developments in Key Jurisdictions
The CPA Journal highlights three pivotal SALT updates: California’s Climate‑Related Financial Risk Act (SB 261) now obliges businesses with over $500 million in revenue to file biennial climate risk reports starting Jan 1 2026, with penalties of $50 k‑$500 k per year; Washington, D.C. passed a...
MITRE ATT&CK as a Governance Tool
MITRE ATT&CK is being promoted as a governance tool for accounting and finance professionals to meet SEC cyber‑disclosure requirements. Unlike traditional control‑centric frameworks, ATT&CK provides a threat‑intelligence view of adversary tactics and techniques. The framework is endorsed by CISA and...