Mark Bernstein CPA, P.A.

04/05/2023

Interesting piece on all the new data the IRS is collecting to close the tax gap

Dog-walking income is taxable. Robert Nickelsberg/Getty ImagesDo you rent out your home a few weekends a year through Airbnb? Sell stuff on Etsy? Get paid for pet-sitting? If you, like many Americans, make at least US$600 a year with a side hustle of any kind, the way you pay taxes may soon change.....

09/18/2022

A great article on how the new inflation reduction act moves forward on drug pricing, deductibles and other medical care issues for retirees

The Inflation Reduction Act will provide much needed prescription drug price relief for seniors.

08/27/2022

The IRS is sending back some penalty money due to their understaffing.

IRS Tax Refunds Coming if You Paid Late Tax Filing Penalties | Money

The refunds are related to tax returns for the 2019 and 2020 tax years.

08/24/2022

Breaking news on student loan debt. The devil is in the details.

President Biden officially announced on Wednesday that his administration is forgiving up to $10,000 in federal student loan debt for borrowers making less than $125,000 annually and $20,000 for Pell Grant recipients, marking the largest forgiveness of the loans per individual to date. Biden also ag...

08/02/2022

Any surprise? The IRS is in a state of disrepair. it is difficult to fix problems with them.

Payments made by the second-listed spouse on a joint return for 2021 under certain conditions may not have been properly credited by the IRS.

07/13/2022

So not paying your payroll taxes just became potentially criminal. If you can’t make your payroll tax payments do not wait to call your tax professional for help.

Seemingly routine payroll tax debt might turn a civil obligation into a criminal tax nightmare in waiting, so tax professionals need to advise their clients properly before the IRS shows up, says Green and Sklarz LLC’s Eric Green.

06/17/2022

So the IRS is now using artificial intelligence bots to help answer certain taxpayer response to notices. Hopefully it will help decongest some of the phone lines.

IR-2022-127: IRS expands voice bot options for faster service, less wait time Internal Revenue Service (IRS) sent this bulletin at 06/17/2022 01:05 PM EDT IRS Newswire June 17, 2022 News Essentials What's Hot News Releases IRS - The Basics IRS Guidance Media Contacts Facts & Figures Around The Natio...

06/09/2022

Hot off the presses!

IRS just increased the standard mileage allowance starting July 1 to 62.5 cents

Announcement 2022-13 advises that the Internal Revenue Service is revising the optional standard mileage rates that were provided in Notice 2022-3, 2022-2 I.R.B. 308, for substantiating the costs of operating an automobile for business, medical or moving purposes. Beginning July 1, 2022, the rates are 62.5 cents per mile for business use of an automobile and 22 cents per mile for costs of using an automobile as a medical or moving expense. Notice 2022-3 is modified.

05/09/2022

Just more headaches for tax professionals and their clients. 30 million information returns destroyed by government because they were paper filed. Just wait until the penalty notices start.

https://www.accountingtoday.com/news/irs-destroyed-30m-paper-information-returns-due-to-backlog

03/27/2022

So more information on problems that are persistent at the IRS

https://www.businessinsider.com/meet-irs-worker-trying-to-get-you-your-tax-refund-2022-3?fbclid=IwAR3kWmWizBMuVAza-KWGvD4Pev4IW0fEuBRA_eLEL_MdSYSKwI5GksmWgcs

Shawn Gunn searches for staples amid cubicles stuffed with paper at a facility in Kansas City. The federal agency has been underfunded for decades.

03/18/2022

IRS is somewhere in the 20 million plus tax returns behind in processing. Hiring new people who have no experience dealing with their antiquated software and technology is their rallying cry. What could go wrong with untrained workers dealing with this?

IRS Commissioner Charles Rettig told House lawmakers he expects the backlog of tens of millions of unprocessed tax returns to clear by the end of 2022.