On September 22, 2020, the IRS issued IRS Announcement 2020-12 to inform lenders that they should not file Forms 1099-C with the IRS or furnish copies of the Forms 1099-C to borrowers with respect to the forgiveness of covered loans made under the Paycheck Protection Program (“PPP”).
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IRS Provides COVID-19 Emergency Relief for Individuals Planning to Claim the Foreign Earned Income Exclusion
Prompted by the COVID-19 global health emergency (the “COVID-19 Emergency”), Treasury and the IRS recently issued Rev. Proc. 2020-27 to provide relief for U.S. citizens and residents planning to take advantage of the foreign earned income exclusion under section 911 of the Internal Revenue Code whose expatriate assignments were interrupted due to the pandemic. The Revenue Procedure waives the time requirements of section 911(d)(1) for those individuals who reasonably expected to meet such requirements during 2019 and 2020, but for the COVID-19 Emergency interrupting normal business activities and forcing their return to the United States within certain time periods identified in the Revenue Procedure.
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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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D.C. Starts Collecting Taxes to Fund New Paid-Leave Program
In 2017, the District of Columbia passed the Universal Paid Leave Amendment Act of 2016 (the “Act”), which called for the creation of a paid-leave program for private sector employees who work in D.C. Earlier this year, the D.C. Office of Paid Family Leave adopted final regulations to implement this new paid-leave program. One of the most notable requirements implemented by the regulations is the imposition of the Act’s 0.62% payroll tax assessed on employers subject to the Act beginning today, July 1, 2019. Employers subject to the Act will have until July 31, 2019, to file the appropriate return and pay the tax without incurring a penalty.
With this upcoming deadline, employers with employees in D.C. need to determine whether they are subject to this tax, and if they are, timely report and pay the tax to avoid potential penalties.
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IRS Issues PLR on Form 1099-C Reporting
On April 26, 2019, the IRS released PLR 201917002 concluding that an entity’s extension of credit, incidental to its sale of nonfinancial goods or performance of nonfinancial services, would not create an obligation under section 6050P to file a Form 1099-C if the entity subsequently discharged the indebtedness associated with the extension of credit.
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IRS Announces Results of Employment Tax Campaign
On April 11, 2019, the IRS announced the results of a national two-week education and enforcement campaign to combat employment tax crimes. Payroll taxes account for approximately 70% of all revenue collected by the U.S. Treasury. Given the significance of payroll tax collections to the federal government, IRS revenue officers across the country visited nearly 100 businesses during the two-week period to discuss suspected employment tax noncompliance by the businesses. These revenue officers informed the businesses about how to catch-up on previously owed payroll taxes, how to stay current in collecting and remitting payroll taxes, and the potential civil and criminal penalties that businesses and individuals face with respect to noncompliance.
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Justice Department Continues Aggressive Enforcement for Trust Fund Tax Failures
The Justice Department has again demonstrated its willingness to prosecute corporate executives for failing to remit employment taxes. On March 22, 2019, the Department of Justice issued a press release to announce that the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of North Carolina sentenced a North Carolina man to 30 months in prison, restitution of $1.686 million, and three years of supervised released following completion of his sentence. The executive served in various official capacities for OneCare, Inc., a mental health service provider, including as the corporation’s President. From 2010 to 2013, OneCare withheld, but failed to pay over, employment taxes in the amount of almost $1.7 million. On May 2, 2018, the executive was charged with, among other charges, one count of Willful Failure to Collect or Pay Over Tax. He ultimately entered into a plea agreement that required him to plead guilty to a single count of Willful Failure to Collect or Pay Over Tax.
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