The Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act (“CARES Act”) authorizes the Treasury Department to provide payments to passenger air carriers, cargo air carriers, and certain contractors that must be exclusively used for the continuation of payment of employee wages, salaries, and benefits. The Payroll Support to Air Carriers and Contractors Program provides a total of up to $32 billion in payroll support to avoid layoffs and furloughs in the airline industry, which has been hard hit by the COVID-19 pandemic. The CARES Act authorizes up to $25 billion in payroll support for passenger air carriers; other air carriers and certain contractors may receive up to $4 billion and $3 billion in payroll support, respectively. Section 4117 of the CARES Act provides that the Treasury Department may receive warrants, options, preferred stock, debt securities, notes, or other financial instruments issued by a company receiving payroll support payments to provide appropriate compensation to the Federal Government for the provision of the financial assistance. Treasury has released a form to memorialize the terms and conditions of the Payroll Support Program Agreement.
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Justice Department Continues Criminal Prosecutions in Employment Tax Cases
Over the last few years, the Justice Department has worked with the IRS to more aggressively prosecute cases involving employment tax noncompliance and the failure to remit trust fund taxes to the U.S. Treasury. Trust fund taxes are taxes withheld from the wages of employees such as federal income tax withholding and FICA tax withholding. Owners, corporate officers, and employees who are responsible for remitting such taxes may also be found to be personally liable for the failure to pay over trust fund taxes and, as the following described cases indicate, they may face criminal prosecution for such failures.
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IRS Launches New Tax Withholding Estimator
Earlier this year, the IRS issued IR-2020-09, in which it announced the launch of a new and improved Tax Withholding Estimator. The Tax Withholding Estimator (the “Estimator”) is designed to help employees adjust their federal income tax withholdings by performing a “Paycheck Checkup.” The process also helps employees target the refund they want by adjusting the amount of federal income tax taken out of their pay. The Estimator incorporates changes from the redesigned Form W-4, Employee’s Withholding Certificate that employees can complete and give to their employers this year. To adjust for the amount of refund desired, the Estimator features a customized refund slider that the employee can use to select a refund from a range of amounts available. Based on the refund amount selected, the Estimator will give the employee instructions on how to fill out their Form W-4 or allow the employee to download a pre-filled Form W-4 based on the Estimator’s recommendations.
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Proposed 162(m) Regulations are a “Lump of Coal”
To corporations hoping for a holiday reprieve from the IRS’s narrow interpretation of the grandfathering rules included in the Tax Cut and Jobs Act (“TCJA”) amendment of section 162(m), the IRS has said “Bah… Humbug!” To those foreign private issuers, publicly traded partnerships, and issuers of public debt hoping for relief from the expanded definition of publicly held corporation, the IRS has said the same. On December 16, the IRS released proposed regulations addressing the changes made to section 162(m) of the Internal Revenue Code as part of TCJA, which are certain to disappoint many taxpayers. The regulations also address the definitions of covered employee and “predecessor of a publicly held corporation,” as well as, the treatment of amounts paid by a partnership in which a publicly held corporation is a partner and director compensation. The regulations are generally proposed to apply to compensation that is otherwise deductible for taxable years beginning on or after December 20, 2019, the date of expected publication in the Federal Register.
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Notice 2019-63 Delivers Relief for Providers of Minimum Essential Coverage
Holding true to its holiday tradition, the IRS yet again decided to extend the deadline by which providers of minimum essential coverage (including certain applicable large employers (“ALEs”)) must furnish information statements to individuals regarding their 2019 insurance coverage. However, due to the effective elimination of the ACA’s individual mandate penalty through the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (“TCJA”), the IRS went one step further than in past years by allowing certain providers to forgo the individual furnishing requirement, if certain notice requirements are met instead.
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The IRS Introduces More Informative Backup Withholding Notices for Payers
On November 14, 2019, the IRS announced that it has redesigned Notices CP2100 and CP2100A with the goal of providing more information to affected payers. These Notices are used to alert payers that the IRS received Forms 1099 containing incorrect or missing Taxpayer Identification Numbers (TINs) for payees and that the payer may need to contact payees regarding their name and TIN information and/or backup withhold at a rate of 24% as a result. Payments potentially subject to backup withholding are reportable payments, such as interest (including tax-exempt interest), dividends, broker and barter exchange transactions, rents, royalties, nonemployee compensation, payments made in settlement of payment card and third party network transactions, and certain payments from fishing boat operators.
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Significant TCJA Guidance Due Before End of Year, Kautter Says
Treasury Assistant Secretary for Tax Policy David Kautter attended the AICPA National Tax Conference on November 13, 2019, and commented that significant TCJA-related guidance should be expected to be released before the end of 2019. Such guidance is likely to include proposed regulations addressing (1) federal income tax withholding under section 3402, (2) the executive compensation deduction limitation under section 162(m), and (3) computation of unrelated business taxable income (UBTI) under section 512.
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November 15 Deadline Approaching for 2019 Qualified Intermediary Applications
On November 6, the IRS issued its final reminder alert that the deadline for all Qualified Intermediary (“QI”) (including Qualified Derivatives Dealer (“QDD”)), Withholding Foreign Partnership (“WP”) and Withholding Foreign Trust (“WT”) applications for the 2019 year is November 15, 2019.
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Proposed Regulations Provide Guidance for Classification of Digital Content Transactions and Cloud Transactions
On August 9, 2019, Treasury and the IRS issued proposed regulations under section 861 of the Code to clarify how transactions involving digital content and cloud computing are classified for tax purposes. The new rules propose to revise and expand upon Treasury Regulation § 1.861-18 regarding digital content transactions and establish new Treasury Regulation § 1.861-19 regarding cloud computing transactions. The proposed regulations also propose changes to Treasury Regulation § 1.861-7 regarding the source rules for sales of personal property. Collectively, the rules are intended to address whether a digital transaction is characterized as a sale, lease, license, or provision of services for purposes applying various provisions of the Code, including the source rules, which are critical for purposes of determining whether withholding is required under Chapter 3 and reporting obligations under sections 6041 and 6050N, and Subpart F.
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IRS Updates Country-by-Country Reporting Instructions
On July 10, the IRS updated the Instructions for Form 8975 and Schedule A (Form 8975). Form 8975 (Country-by-Country Report) is used by taxpayers that are the parent entity of a U.S. multinational enterprise (“U.S. MNE”) with annual revenue of $850 million or more. Taxpayers must file Form 8975 to report information related to the taxpayer’s MNE’s constituent entities on a country-by-country basis, including (i) each entity’s tax jurisdiction; (ii) country of organization and main business activity; and (iii) financial and employee information for each tax jurisdiction in which the U.S. MNE does business (i.e., revenues, profits, income taxes paid, accumulated earnings, and tangible assets).
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