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On December 20, President Donald Trump signed the bipartisan, year-end government spending and tax package, just hours before federal funding was set to expire. Trump's signature on the over 2,000-page spending package avoided a government shutdown.

Year-End Tax Package
The Further Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2020, (HR 1865), logs just over 700 pages and serves as only half of the government spending package for fiscal year 2020, which runs through September 30. Most notably, HR 1865 serves as the legislative vehicle for a year-end tax package, which carries a costly $426 billion price tag over a 10-year budget window, according to the nonpartisan Joint Committee on Taxation (JCT), JCX-54R-19.

Some of the tax-related provisions in the year-end package include, among other items:

Retroactive and current renewal of over two dozen temporary tax breaks known as tax extenders, which have expired or would soon be expired, spanning from 2017 to 2019. Generally, the renewed tax breaks are extended through 2020, and the biodiesel and short-line railroad maintenance tax credits are extended until 2022;
The Setting Every Community Up for Retirement Enhancement Act (SECURE Act) (HR 1994), which makes sweeping changes to retirement savings and employer retirement contributions provisions;
Certain fixes to the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA) ( P.L. 115-97); and
Full repeal of three tax-related provisions of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) ( P.L. 111-148), two of which include the 2.3 percent excise tax on medical devices and the 40 percent excise "Cadillac" tax on high-dollar employer-sponsored health insurance plans.

The House approved HR 1865 on December 17 by a 297-to-120 vote. The Senate cleared the measure on December 19 by a 71-to-23 vote.

"So in the end, with more than $400 billion in tax cuts, there were lots of winners and the usual loser – the budget."

"There were numerous fits and starts, but this result is a reminder that Congressional muscle memory on extenders is very strong, so ultimately the members did what they always do – extend them," John Gimigliano, principal-in-charge of the federal legislative and regulatory services group in the Washington National Tax practice of KPMG LLP told Wolters Kluwer. "Some might be surprised to see the ACA taxes rolled back, but it has always felt like those items were on borrowed time; it was really just a question of when and how they were repealed, not whether. So in the end, with more than $400 billion in tax cuts, there were lots of winners and the usual loser – the budget."

SECURE ACT
The bipartisan SECURE Act, which cleared the House in May but remained stalled in the Senate most of the year, makes a number of major as well as administrative changes for retirement savings affecting both individuals and employers.

Some of those changes are noted as follows:

IRA Changes

Moving the start date for requirement required minimum distributions (RMDs) to the year the owner turns 72;
Ending the 70 1/2 age limit for contribute contributions to an IRA; and
Shortening the distribution period for nonspouse inherited IRAs to a 10-year maximum.
The 10-year window for distributions to a nonspouse beneficiary applies regardless of when the IRA owner dies. Thus, the change will severely limit the use of "stretch IRAs" as an effective planning tool. Limited exceptions are available.

401(k) Changes

Requiring plans to offer participation to long-term, part-time employees;
Encouraging auto-enrollment by increasing the cap; and
Streamlining the safe harbor for non-elective contributions.

Employers with 401(k) plans must offer employees who work between 500 and 1000 hours year an additional means to participate in the plan. The rule change would only affect 401(k) cash or deferral arrangements, and no other qualified plans.

Retirement Plans for Small Employers

Several changes are made to encourage more small employers to offer retirement benefits to their employees, such as:

Adding a new tax credit for small employers using auto-enrollment plans;
Increasing the credit for small employer pension plan start-up costs; and
Allow small employers of two or more to band together to participate in a new class of pooled multiple employer plans (MEPs).

Congress Adjourns Until 2020
After an eventful two-week sprint to the finish line, Congress adjourned for the year on December 20. Lawmakers are expected to return to Washington, D.C. during the week of January 6, 2020.

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The Fifth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals ruled that the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act’s (ACA) ( P.L. 111-148) individual mandate is unconstitutional because it can no longer be read as a tax, and there is no other constitutional provision that justifies this exercise of congressional power. However, the central question of whether the rest of the ACA remains valid after Congress removed the penalty for not having health insurance remained unanswered. Instead, the case was sent back to the district court to reconsider how much of the ACA could survive without the individual mandate penalty.

District Court
According to the opinion, "the rule of law demands a careful, precise explanation of whether the provisions of the ACA are affected by the unconstitutionality of the individual mandate as it exists today." Therefore, the opinion directs the district court to carefully consider whether the mandate can be legally distinct from the rest of the law. The opinion instructs the district court to answer two questions: Which parts of the ACA "are indeed inseverable" now that the mandate is no longer enforced and whether a ruling in the case should apply only to the Republican-led states that sued to overturn the law, an issue raised by Trump administration lawyers.

Dissenting Opinion
A dissenting opinion discussed that Congress made it clear that it wanted the rest of the ACA to stand and sending the case back to the lower court was criticized. The opinion also highlighted that sending the case back to the lower court merely identifies serious flaws in the district court’s analysis and remands for a do-over, which will unnecessarily prolong this litigation and the concomitant uncertainty over the future of the health care sector.

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Proposed qualified opportunity zone regulations issued on October 29, 2018 ( REG-115420-18) and May 1, 2019 ( REG-120186-18) under Code Sec. 1400Z-2 have been finalized with modifications. The regulations. which were issued in a 550 page document, are comprehensive.

The regulations address issued related to all aspects of the gain deferral rules and also various requirements that must be met for an entity to qualify as a qualified opportunity fund (QOF) or as a qualified opportunity zone business. Duplicative rules regarding QOFs and qualified opportunity zone businesses have been combined and definitions of key terms added. The regulations detail which taxpayers are eligible to make the election, the types of capital gains eligible for deferral, and the method of making deferral elections. Revisions are made to the rules applying the statutory 180-period and other requirements with regard to the making of a qualifying investment in a QOF.

The IRS will reflect these regulations in updated forms, instructions, and other guidance in January 2020.

Benefits of QOF Investments
Taxpayers may elect to temporarily defer capital gain in income if the gain is invested within 180 days in a QOF. The gain is recognized on Dec. 31, 2026, or if earlier, upon the occurrence of an inclusion event such as the sale of the QOF investment. However, 10 percent of the deferred gain is not recognized if the investment is held five years and 15 percent is not recognized after seven years. In addition, taxpayers may exclude recognition of gain on appreciation in the investment if the investment in the qualified opportunity fund is held for at least 10 years.

Section 1231 gains
The final regulations provide that eligible gains include the gross amount of eligible section 1231 gains unreduced by section 1231 losses regardless of character. The proposed regulations took a "netting" approach. The 180-day period for an eligible taxpayer to invest an amount with respect to an eligible section 1231 gain begins on the date of the sale of the section 1231 asset rather than at the end of the tax year.

RICS and REITS
The 180-day period for RIC or REIT capital gain dividends generally begins at the close of the shareholder’s tax year in which the capital gain dividend would otherwise be recognized by the shareholder. To ensure that RIC and REIT shareholders do not have to wait until the close of their tax year to invest capital gain dividends received during the tax year, the final regulations also provide that shareholders may elect to begin the 180-day period on the day each capital gain dividend is paid. The 180-day period for undistributed capital gain dividends, however, begins on either the last day of the shareholder’s tax year in which the dividend would otherwise be recognized or the last day of the RIC or REIT’s tax year, at the shareholder’s election.

The aggregate amount of a shareholder’s eligible gain with respect to capital gain dividends received from a RIC or a REIT cannot exceed the aggregate amount of capital gain dividends that the shareholder receives as reported or designated by that RIC or that REIT for the shareholder’s tax year.

Installment Sales
The final regulations allow an eligible taxpayer to elect to choose the 180- day period to begin on either (i) the date a payment under an installment sale is received for that tax year, or (ii) the last day of the tax year the eligible gain under the installment method would be recognized. Therefore, if the taxpayer defers gain from multiple payments under an installment sale, there might be multiple 180-day periods, or a single 180-day period at the end of the taxpayer’s tax year, depending upon taxpayer’s election.

Partners, S Corporation Shareholders, and Trust Beneficiaries
The final regulations provide partners, S shareholders, and beneficiaries of decedents’ estates and non-grantor trusts with the option to treat the 180-day period as commencing upon the due date of the related entity’s tax return, not including any extensions. This rule does not apply to grantor trusts.

Gain from Disposal of Partial Interest in QOF Investment
Gain arising from an inclusion event is eligible for deferral even though the taxpayer retains a portion of its qualifying investment after the inclusion event. If an inclusion event relates only to a portion of a taxpayer’s qualifying investment in the QOF, (i) the deferred gain that otherwise would be required to be included in income (inclusion gain amount) may be invested in a different QOF, and (ii) the taxpayer may make a deferral election with respect to the inclusion gain amount, so long as the taxpayer satisfies all requirements for a deferral election on the inclusion gain amount.

Post-December 31, 2026 Gain Ineligible
Gain arising after December 31, 2026 (including gain mandatorily recognized on that date) is not eligible for deferral.

Death Related Transfers of QOF Investments
A qualifying investment received by a beneficiary in a transfer by reason of death remains a qualifying investment in the hands of the beneficiary.

Acquisition of Eligible Interest from Person Other than a QOF
A taxpayer may make a deferral election for an eligible interest acquired from a person other than a QOF. The final regulations do not require the transferor to have made a prior deferral election for the acquirer of an eligible interest to make the election.

Further, for interests in entities that existed before the enactment of the deferral provision, if such entities become QOFs, then the interests in those entities, even though not qualifying investments in the hands of a transferor, are eligible interests that may (i) be acquired by an investor and (ii) result in a qualifying investment of the acquirer if the acquirer has eligible gain and the acquisition was during the 180-day period with respect to that gain.

Built in Gains
Built-in gain of a REIT, a RIC, or an S corporation potentially subject to corporate-level tax is eligible for deferral. If the deferral election is made, the amount of gain is not included in the calculation of the entity’s net recognized built-in gain.

Identification of Disposed Interests in a QOF
The final regulations permit taxpayers to specifically identify QOF stock that is sold or otherwise disposed. If a taxpayer fails to adequately identify which QOF shares are disposed of, then the FIFO identification method applies. If, after application of the FIFO method, a taxpayer is treated as having disposed of less than all of its investment interests that the taxpayer acquired on one day and the investments vary in its characteristics, then a pro-rata method applies to the remainder.

The specific identification method does not apply to the disposition of interests in a QOF partnership.

Deferred Gain Retains Tax Attributes
The final regulations make it clear that if a taxpayer is required to include in income some or all of a previously deferred gain, the gain so included has the same attributes that the gain would have had if the recognition of gain had not been deferred. If a deferred gain cannot be clearly associated with an investment in a particular QOF, an ordering rule applies to make this determination.

Effective Date
The final regulations are generally applicable to tax years beginning after 60 days after publication in the Federal Register.

With respect to the portion of a taxpayer’s first tax year ending after December 21, 2017, that began on December 22, 2017, and for tax years beginning after December 21, 2017, and on or before 60 days after publication in the Federal Register taxpayers may rely on either the proposed regulations or the final regulations but not both.

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The IRS has issued final regulations that provide guidance on transfers of appreciated property by U.S. persons to partnerships with foreign partners related to the transferor. Specifically, the regulations override the general nonrecognition rule under Code Sec. 721(a) unless the partnership adopts the remedial allocation method and certain other requirements are satisfied. The regulations affect U.S. partners in domestic or foreign partnerships.

Background
Code Sec. 721(a) generally provides that no gain or loss is recognized by either a partnership or any of its partners upon a contribution of property to the partnership in exchange for a partnership interest. In Code Sec. 721(c), the Treasury Secretary has regulatory authority to override this nonrecognition provision for gain realized on the transfer of property to a domestic or foreign partnership if the gain, when recognized, would be includible in the gross income of a person other than a U.S. person.

Under temporary regulations issued in 2017, if a U.S. person contributes certain property with built-in gain to a partnership that has foreign partners related to the transferor, then gain will be recognized unless the gain deferral method is applied with respect to the property ( Temporary Reg. §§1.721(c)-2T; 1.721(c)-3T). Under a de minimis exception, nonrecognition continues to apply if the sum of all built-in gain property contributed to the partnership during the tax year does not exceed $1 million.

The final regulations adopt the temporary regulations with certain modifications.

Related Person Definition
The final regulations modify the definition of related person in certain situations. This modification provides relief when certain foreign individual partners of a partnership would be treated as a related person with respect to a domestic corporation by reason of Code Sec. 267(c)(3).

Consistent Allocation Method
The final regulations add a new sentence in Reg. §1.721(c)-3(c)(1). Upon a variation (as described in Reg. §1.706-4(a)(1)) of a U.S. transferor’s interest in a Code Sec. 721(c) partnership, book items with respect to section 721(c) property that are allocated under the interim closing method (as described in Reg. §1.706-4) will be treated as allocated in the same percentage for applying the consistent allocation method in a single tax year, unless the variation results from a transaction undertaken with a principal purpose of avoiding the tax consequences of the gain deferral method.

Reporting Requirements
The 2017 regulations required much of the reporting to be on statements attached to returns. Since the 2017 regulations were issued, however, the IRS has updated and added new schedules to Form 8865, Return of U.S. Persons With Respect to Certain Foreign Partnerships, to facilitate compliance with these reporting requirements. The IRS has also issued new Form 8838-P, Consent To Extend the Time To Assess Tax Pursuant to the Gain Deferral Method (Section 721(c)). The final regulations generally require taxpayers to use these forms and schedules.

The final regulations also clarify the duration for which the U.S. transferor must extend the period of limitations on the assessment of tax under Reg. §1.721(c)-6(b).

Technical Termination Rules
The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, ( P.L. 115-97) (the "TCJA") eliminated technical terminations. However, the applicability date for these final regulations relates back to the applicability date provided in the 2017 regulations, which is before the effective date provided in the TCJA. Accordingly, the final regulations retain technical termination rules, but their application will be limited. The rules will only apply to technical terminations occurring on or after the applicability date provided in the 2017 regulations but before the effective date for the repeal of Code Sec. 708(b)(1)(B) provided in the TCJA.

Effective Date
The regulations are effective on the date of filing with the Federal Register. For dates of applicability, see Reg. §§1.197-2(l)(5)(i), 1.704-1(f), 1.704-3(g)(1), 1.721(c)-1(e), 1.721(c)-2(e), 1.721(c)-3(e), 1.721(c)-4(d), 1.721(c)-5(g), 1.721(c)-6(g), and 1.6038B-2(j)(4).

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The IRS has released Publication 5382, "Internal Revenue Service Progress Update / Fiscal Year 2019—Putting Taxpayers First." This new annual report describes accomplishments across the agency, and highlights the work of IRS employees during the past year. It covers a variety of taxpayer service efforts, including development of the new Taxpayer Withholding Estimator, as well as operations support efforts on areas involving information technology modernization, human capital office initiatives, and others.

"This report is about more than what happened during the past year," IRS Commissioner Chuck Rettig wrote in the report’s opening message to taxpayers. "It’s also designed to provide insight into the people serving this country on behalf of the IRS, and provide a glimpse into the future," he added.

IRS Pub. 5382 also focuses criminal investigation results and efforts involving civil enforcement. Also discussed are ongoing compliance areas, including micro-captives, syndicated conservation easements, and virtual currency. The report further covers the IRS’s implementation of new tax laws, and the IRS’s ongoing work on the new Taxpayer First Act of 2019.

Individual Audits Down
Taxpayers are now half as likely to be audited by the IRS for their individual income tax returns as they were a decade ago. As described in IRS Pub. 5382, the IRS audited 0.45 percent of individual (1040) income tax returns during fiscal year (FY) 2019. This number is down from 1.1 percent of tax returns audited in 2010. The IRS’s ongoing loss to its total workforce is largely to blame for the consistent decline in IRS audits, according to the report.

"The IRS lost more than 29,618 full time positions between FY 2010 and FY 2019, which includes Information Technology, Operations Support, Taxpayer Service and Enforcement personnel. These losses directly correlate with a steady decline in the number of individual audits during the past nine years," the report notes.

Hill Reaction
Although individual audits have significantly decreased, Democratic lawmakers on Capitol Hill are criticizing the fact that the IRS continues to conduct more examinations on lower-income individual taxpayers than it does on higher-income taxpayers or corporations. However, the IRS has said previously that audits on higher-income individuals and businesses are significantly more complex and require more resources.

"IRS audit rates are at their lowest levels in 40 years, allowing the wealthy and well-connected to steal from taxpayers with no consequences," Senate Finance Committee ranking member Ron Wyden, D-Ore., said in a January 7 statement. "The bulk of tax avoidance and fraud comes from corporations, pass-through business and those at the top. Ensuring the wealthy and corporations pay what they owe takes the most resources and manpower, and I’m working with the IRS to get a clear picture on funding and staffing levels needed to audit top earners at 2010 levels," Wyden added.

Currently, the IRS anticipates that up to 31 percent of its workforce (nearly 19,719 full-time employees) will retire within the next five years. The IRS’s workforce decline is expected to create a "significant risk of a large knowledge and experience gap for the nation’s tax agency," according to the IRS report.

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Bridget Roberts, the Acting National Taxpayer Advocate, released her 2019 Annual Report to Congress. The report discusses the key challenges facing the IRS regarding the implementation of the Taxpayer First Act, inadequate taxpayer service and limited funding of the agency. Further, Roberts released the third edition of the National Taxpayer Advocate’s "Purple Book," which presents 58 legislative recommendations designed to strengthen taxpayer rights and improve tax administration.

Taxpayer First Act
The report highlighted that the Taxpayer First Act ( P.L. 116-25) had made the most comprehensive revisions to IRS procedures since the IRS Restructuring and Reform Act of 1998, including some 23 provisions previously recommended by the National Taxpayer Advocate. Further, the Taxpayer First Act also required the IRS to develop four strategic plans:

a comprehensive taxpayer service strategy (due to Congress by July 1, 2020);
a comprehensive plan to redesign the IRS’s organizational structure (due to Congress by Sept. 30, 2020);
a comprehensive employee training strategy that includes taxpayer rights training (due to Congress by July 1, 2020); and
a multi-year plan to meet IRS information technology (IT) needs.

Key IRS Challenges
The biggest challenge facing the IRS is its struggle to complete its mission. The IRS aims to "provide America’s taxpayers top-quality service by helping them understand and meet their tax responsibilities and enforce the law with integrity and fairness to all." The report emphasizes that the IRS is struggling to meet both of those goals, and attributes the IRS’s shortcomings mostly to budget constraints but also to a culture in which the agency focuses on its own priorities without adequately factoring in the needs of taxpayers.

The report states that the IRS is among the lowest-performing federal agencies in providing a positive customer experience. During fiscal year (FY) 2019, the report said that the IRS received approximately 100 million telephone calls, and customer service representatives answered only 29 percent. The report further states that the IRS has also struggled to enforce the law with "fairness to all". The report urges the IRS to prioritize phone service for taxpayers against whom it takes collection action.

Low Budget
Since 2010, the IRS budget has been reduced by about 20 percent after adjusting for inflation, and the number of full-time equivalent employees has declined by about 22 percent. The report points out that answering 100 million telephone calls, conducting audits, and taking enforcement actions require adequate staffing, and the IRS cannot substantially improve its performance without additional resources. The report urges Congress to increase IRS funding and particularly for taxpayer service and IT modernization, and to change the budget rules to account for the revenue additional IRS appropriations are likely to generate.

Identifying Taxpayer Needs and Preferences
Despite the IRS’s significant funding limitations, the report urges the IRS to utilize the Taxpayer First Act requirements – to develop plans to revamp its taxpayer service strategy, organizational structure, employee training strategy, and technology priorities – as a roadmap for a once-in-a-generation reassessment of its objectives and operations.

While noting that the IRS has developed strategies in a vacuum without soliciting taxpayer feedback and taking into account taxpayer needs and preferences, the report suggests a full-scale cultural shift. The report also expressed concern that the IRS has declined to include the National Taxpayer Advocate or a Taxpayer Advocate Service (TAS) representative as part of a core team created to coordinate its Taxpayer First Act implementation activities.

The report also makes numerous recommendations to improve the customer experience, including that the IRS take the following actions:

Conduct multi-disciplined, comprehensive research into taxpayer needs and preferences.
Require that all IRS business units, including those charged primarily with enforcement, develop a detailed customer service strategy.
Appoint a Chief Customer Experience Officer to coordinate service initiatives across IRS business units.
Ensure that taxpayers who cannot work with the IRS digitally, or whose issues are not resolved online, can reach and work with an IRS employee.
Address the needs of practitioners who interact with the IRS on behalf of large numbers of taxpayers.
For each proposal included in its customer service strategy, include cost estimates, milestones, and taxpayer-focused performance measures so the effectiveness of the strategy in improving customer service can be measured over time.

Other Matters
The report also:

identified 10 "most serious problems";
provided status updates on two problems identified in previous reports;
made dozens of recommendations for administrative change;
made 58 recommendations for legislative change;
analyzed the 10 tax issues most frequently litigated in the federal courts; and
presented four research studies.

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The IRS has modified the applicability dates for proposed regulations under Code Sec. 382 that were issued with NPRM REG-125710-18, September 10, 2019 (2019 proposed regulations). The IRS is withdrawing the text of the proposed applicability dates, and proposing revised applicability dates. The newly issued proposed rules would also provide transition relief.

Proposed Regulations and Notice 2003-65
The 2019 proposed regulations would provide guidance on the inclusion of items of income and deductions in the calculation of built-in gains and losses under Code Sec. 382(h). The proposed regulations would apply to ownership changes that occur after the date the proposed regulations are published as final regulations in the Federal Register.

Notice 2003-65, 2003-2 CB 747, provides interim guidance for identifying built-in gains and losses under Code Sec. 382(h). This notice permits taxpayers to rely on safe harbor approaches for applying Code Sec. 382(h) to an ownership change prior to the effective date of temporary or final regulations issued under that provision.

Delay of Applicability Date
To address concerns raised by taxpayers and practitioners, the IRS has withdrawn the text of Proposed Reg. §1.382-2(b)(4) and Proposed Reg. §1.382-7(g) contained in the 2019 proposed regulations, and replaced it with a revised proposed applicability date text. To avoid any gap between the date on which taxpayers can no longer rely on Notice 2003-65 and the date on which the final regulations are applicable, the applicability date of the final regulations would be 30 days after the date such regulations are published in the Federal Register (delayed applicability date). Exceptions exist for two situations discussed below.

Notice 2003-65 will remain applicable to ownership changes to which the final regulations do not apply.

Limiting Duplicative Application
The first exception to the delayed applicability date relates to the rule in Proposed Reg. §1.382-7(d)(5), which provides that certain carryforwards of business interest expense disallowed under Code Sec. 163(j) would not be treated as recognized built-in losses under Code Sec. 382(h)(6)(B), if such amounts were allowable as deductions during the five-year recognition period set forth in Code Sec. 382(h)(7)(A). This rule eliminates the possible duplicative application of Code Sec. 382 to certain disallowed business interest expense carryforwards.

The IRS has determined that Proposed Reg. §1.382-7(d)(5) should be finalized before the remainder of the rules in the 2019 proposed regulations, and that taxpayers should be allowed to retroactively apply this rule. To that end, the IRS expects that Proposed Reg. §1.382-7(d)(5) will be finalized as part of the Treasury decision that finalizes the proposed Code Sec. 163(j) regulations (see 83 FR 67490), and that taxpayers will be permitted to apply the rule to prior periods. The IRS continues to study the remainder of the rules in the 2019 proposed regulations.

Transition Relief
Under the proposed transition relief provisions, the final regulations would not apply to certain ownership changes that occur after the delayed applicability date. To qualify for the transition relief, the ownership change must occur immediately after an owner shift or equity structure shift that occurs pursuant to:

a binding agreement in effect on or before the delayed applicability date and at all times thereafter;
a specific transaction described in a public announcement made on or before the delayed applicability date;
a specific transaction described in a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission submitted on or before the delayed applicability date;
a transaction described in a private letter ruling request submitted to the IRS on or before the delayed applicability date; or
a court order (or a plan confirmed, or a sale approved, by court order) in a title 11 or similar case, provided that the taxpayer was a debtor in a case before such court on or before the delayed applicability date.

The relevant owner shift or equity structure shift must be a specific, identifiable transaction.

Taxpayers may continue to rely on Notice 2003-65 for to any ownership change qualifying for transition relief, even though the notice will be obsoleted on the delayed applicability date. However, a taxpayer may choose to apply the final regulations to such an ownership change.

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The Treasury and IRS have issued final regulations on the due diligence and reporting rules for persons making certain U.S. source payments to foreign persons. Guidance is also provided on reporting by foreign financial institutions on U.S. accounts. The regulations are effective on the date the regulations are published in the Federal Register.

Obtaining a Foreign TIN and Date of Birth
Temporary regulations provided that beginning January 1, 2017, a beneficial withholding certificate provided to document an account maintained at a U.S. branch or office of a financial institution was required to include a foreign taxpayer identification number (TIN) and the date of birth for an individual, in order to treat the certificate as valid. In response to comments regarding the difficulty of the requirements, the Treasury and IRS issued Notice 2017-46.

The notice provided a one-year delay in the implementation of the requirements for payments made on or after January 1, 2018, and a transitional rules to phase in the foreign TIN requirement for certificates provided before January 1, 2018. The transitional rules allow an otherwise valid certificate to remain valid until January 1, 2020. For payments made after January 1, 2020, a withholding agent may treat a pre-2018 as valid if the foreign TIN is obtained on a written statement or is in the withholding agent’s files. In Notice 2018-20, the IRS stated that it intended to expand its list of jurisdictions that do not issue foreign TINs to their residents to include jurisdictions that requested to be on the list, even if they issue foreign TINs.

The final regulations incorporate the temporary regulations and Notices with minor changes, by:

providing, with respect to withholding certificates signed on or after January 1, 2018, that a separate written statement is an acceptable way to collect a foreign TIN, if the written statement contains an acknowledgment that the statement is part of the withholding certificate;
clarifying the exception to the foreign TIN requirement for an account holder that is a government, international organization, foreign central bank or resident of a U.S. territory; and
clarifying that a withholding agent may rely on the date of birth on a withholding certificate, unless it knows or has reason to know that the date of birth is incorrect.

Nonqualified Intermediaries
A nonqualified intermediary is generally required to provide a withholding agent a Form W-8IMY, a withholding statement, and documentation for each payee for which the intermediary receives a payment. The final regulations clarify that the general standards of knowledge that apply to withholding agents apply to a nonqualified intermediary for reliance on payee documentation, for making the representation that the information on the certificate is not inconsistent with other account information that the nonqualified intermediary has.

A nonqualified intermediary may provide a withholding statement that does not include a chapter 4 recipient code for one or more payees if the withholding agent can determine the appropriate code based on other information included on or associated with the withholding statement, or contained in the withholding agent’s records.

Electronic Signatures
A withholding agent can accept an electronically signed withholding certificate if the certificate reasonably demonstrates to the withholding agent that it has been electronically signed by the recipient identified on the form or authorized by the recipient to sign the form.

The final regulations allow the withholding agent to also consider documentation or other information that the withholding agent has that supports that the withholding certificate was electronically signed, absent actual knowledge that the information or documentation is incorrect.

Additional Changes
The final regulations also make clarifications with respect to withholding certificates and statements furnished through a third party repository.

Regarding the claim of a reduced rate of withholding under a treaty, the final regulations modify the general standard of knowledge by providing that:

the withholding agent has reason to know that a claim of reduced rate under a treaty is unreliable or incorrect when it can check a list on the IRS website regarding the existence of the treaty, and
a withholding agent can rely on a beneficial owner’s claim regarding a limitation of benefits (LOB) provision, absent actual knowledge that the claim is unreliable or incorrect.

The final regulation also extend the time for withholding agents to obtain treaty statements, with respect to specific LOB provisions for preexisting accounts, to January 1, 2020.

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Taxpayers have been provided with additional guidance for complying with the Code Sec. 871(m) regulations on dividend equivalent payments for 2021, 2022, and 2023. The Treasury Department and the IRS intend to amend the regulations to delay the effective/applicability date of certain rules. Further, the phase-in period provided in Notice 2018-762, I.R.B. 2018-40, 522, has been extended.

Dividend Equivalent Payments
A dividend equivalent amount is essentially an amount directly or indirectly determined by reference to a U.S. dividend. Code Sec. 871(m) treats dividend equivalent payments as U.S. source dividends. These payments are subject to 30-percent withholding (or a lower treaty rate) if received by a nonresident alien or foreign corporation.

The Code Sec. 871(m) regulations include final and temporary regulations under Code Secs. 871(m), 1441, 1461, and 1473.

Phase-in Year Extended
The effective/applicability date for the specified notional principal contract (NPC) rules under Reg. §1.871-15(d)(2) and the specified equity-linked instrument (ELI) rules under Reg. §1.871-15(e) will be revised. These rules will not apply to any payment made with respect to any non-delta-one transaction issued before January 1, 2023.

The IRS will take into account the extent to which the taxpayer or withholding agent made a good faith effort to comply with the Code Sec. 871(m) regulations in enforcing those regulations—

for any delta-one transaction in 2017 through 2022; and
for any non-delta-one transaction that is a Code Sec. 871(m) transaction under Reg. §1.871-15(d)(2) or Reg. §1.871-15(e) in 2023.

Further, the period when the IRS will take into account the extent to which a qualified derivatives dealer made a good faith effort to comply with the Code Sec. 871(m) regulations and the relevant provisions of the 2017 Qualified Intermediary (QI) Agreement is extended through 2022.

The 2017 QI Agreement will be revised so that a QDD will be treated as satisfying the obligations that specifically apply to a QDD under that agreement for 2017 through 2022.

Simplified Standard Extended
The period when the simplified standard applies for withholding agents to determine whether transactions entered into were combined transactions is extended to include 2021 and 2022. Transactions entered into in 2017 through 2022 that are combined under the simplified standard will continue to be treated as combined for future years. They will not stop being combined transactions by applying Reg. §1.871-15(n) (the combined transactions rule in the regulations), or by disposing of less than all of the potential Code Sec. 871(m) transactions that are combined under this rule.

Transactions entered into in 2017 through 2022 that are not combined under the simplified standard will not become combined transactions by applying Reg. §1.871-15(n) to them in future years, unless a reissuance or other event causes the transactions to be retested to determine whether they are Code Sec. 871(m) transactions.

Phase-In Relief for Qualified Derivatives Dealers Extended
Regarding qualified derivatives dealers (QDDs), Reg. §1.871-15(q)(1), Reg. §1.871-15(r)(3), and Reg. §1.1441-1(b)(4)(xxii)(C) will be amended so that a QDD will not be subject to tax on dividends and dividend equivalents received in 2021 and 2022 in its equity derivatives dealer capacity or withholding on those dividends (including deemed dividends). A QDD will have to compute its Code Sec. 871(m) amount using the net delta approach beginning in 2023.

A QDD will remain liable under Code Sec. 881(a)(1) for tax on dividends and dividend equivalents that it receives in any other capacity, and on any other U.S. source FDAP payments that it receives (whether or not in its equity derivatives dealer capacity). A QDD is also responsible for withholding on dividend equivalents it pays to a foreign person on a Code Sec. 871(m) transaction.

Transition Rules Extended
Withholding agents may apply the qualified securities lender (QSL) transition rules described in Notice 2010-46, I.R.B. 2010-24, 757, for payments made in calendar years 2021 and 2022.

Anti-Abuse Rule
The anti-abuse rule in Reg. §1.871-15(o) will continue to apply during the phase-in years. This means that a transaction that would not otherwise be treated as a Code Sec. 871(m) transaction (including as a result of the new guidance) might still be a Code Sec. 871(m) transaction under the anti-abuse rule.

Taxpayer Reliance
Taxpayers and withholding agents can rely on the new guidance before the Treasury and IRS amend the Code Sec. 871(m) regulations and the 2017 QI Agreement.

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Some individuals must pay estimated taxes or face a penalty in the form of interest on the amount underpaid. Self-employed persons, retirees, and nonworking individuals most often must pay estimated taxes to avoid the penalty. But an employee may need to pay them if the amount of tax withheld from wages is insufficient to cover the tax owed on other income. The potential tax owed on investment income also may increase the need for paying estimated tax, even among wage earners.

The trick with estimated taxes is to pay a sufficient amount of estimated tax to avoid a penalty but not to overpay. The IRS will refund the overpayment when you file your return, but it will not pay interest on it. In other words, by overpaying tax to the IRS, you are in essence choosing to give the government an interest-free loan rather than invest your money somewhere else and make a profit.

When do I make estimated tax payments?

Individual estimated tax payments are generally made in four installments accompanying a completed Form 1040-ES, Estimated Tax for Individuals. For the typical individual who uses a calendar tax year, payments generally are due on April 15, June 15, and September 15 of the tax year, and January 15 of the following year (or the following business day when it falls on a weekend or other holiday).

Am I required to make estimated tax payments?

Generally, you must pay estimated taxes in 2012 if (1) you expect to owe at least $1,000 in tax after subtracting tax withholding (if you have any) and (2) you expect your withholding and credits to be less than the smaller of 90 percent of your 2012 taxes or 100 percent of the tax on your 2011 return. There are special rules for higher income individuals.

Usually, there is no penalty if your estimated tax payments plus other tax payments, such as wage withholding, equal either 100 percent of your prior year's tax liability or 90 percent of your current year's tax liability. However, if your adjusted gross income for your prior year exceeded $150,000, you must pay either 110 percent of the prior year tax or 90 percent of the current year tax to avoid the estimated tax penalty. For married filing separately, the higher payments apply at $75,000.

Estimated tax is not limited to income tax. In figuring your installments, you must also take into account other taxes such as the alternative minimum tax, penalties for early withdrawals from an IRA or other retirement plan, and self-employment tax, which is the equivalent of Social Security taxes for the self-employed.

Suppose I owe only a relatively small amount of tax?

There is no penalty if the tax underpayment for the year is less than $1,000. However, once an underpayment exceeds $1,000, the penalty applies to the full amount of the underpayment.

What if I realize I have miscalculated my tax before the year ends?

An employee may be able to avoid the penalty by getting the employer to increase withholding in an amount needed to cover the shortfall. The IRS will treat the withheld tax as being paid proportionately over the course of the year, even though a greater amount was withheld at year-end. The proportionate treatment could prevent penalties on installments paid earlier in the year.

What else can I do?

If you receive income unevenly over the course of the year, you may benefit from using the annualized income installment method of paying estimated tax. Under this method, your adjusted gross income, self-employment income and alternative minimum taxable income at the end of each quarterly tax payment period are projected forward for the entire year. Estimated tax is paid based on these annualized amounts if the payment is lower than the regular estimated payment. Any decrease in the amount of an estimated tax payment caused by using the annualized installment method must be added back to the next regular estimated tax payment.

Determining estimated taxes can be complicated, but the penalty can be avoided with proper attention. This office stands ready to assist you with this determination. Please contact us if we can help you determine whether you owe estimated taxes.

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The dependency exemption is a valuable deduction that may be lost in many situations simply because some basic rules for qualification are not followed. Classifying someone as a dependent can also entitle you to other significant deductions or credits. Here is a rundown of some of the rules and their implications.

Exemptions reduce your adjusted gross income. There are two types of exemptions: personal exemptions and exemptions for dependents. For each exemption you can deduct $3,800 on your 2012 tax return. In computing the amount to be withheld from an employee's wages, the employee is entitled to an allowance equal to the exemption amount used to calculate the personal exemption deduction. On a joint return, you may claim one personal exemption for yourself and one for your spouse. If you're filing a separate return, you may claim the exemption for your spouse only if he or she had no gross income, is not filing a joint return, and was not the dependent of another taxpayer.

Exemptions for dependents. You generally can take an exemption for each of your dependents. A dependent is your qualifying child or qualifying relative. In some circumstances, even an aged parent who lives with you may qualify. No personal exemption is allowed for a dependent or any other individual unless the taxpayer identification number (TIN) of that individual is included on the return claiming the exemption. The TIN generally must be a social security number (SSN).

Support test. A qualifying child must not have provided more than one-half of his or her own support during the calendar year in which the taxpayer's tax year begins. In contrast, the taxpayer must provide at least one-half of a qualifying relative's support in order to claim the relative as a dependent.

As of the close of the calendar year in which the taxpayer's tax year begins, a qualifying child must not have attained the age of 19, or must be a student who has not attained the age of 24. This age test does not apply to a child who is permanently and totally disabled at any time during the calendar year in which the taxpayer's tax year begins. A student for this purpose is an individual who, during each of five calendar months of the calendar year in which the taxpayer's tax year begins, is a full-time student at an educational organization, or is pursuing a full-time course of instructional on-farm training. This five-month rules generally enables most parent of college students graduating in May to take their child as an exemption "one last time."

An adoptive parent in the process of a domestic adoption who has custody of the child pending the final adoption and who provides enough financial support during the year is entitled to claim a dependency exemption for the child.

Possible downsides of being a dependent. If someone else - such as your parent - claims you as a dependent, you may not claim your personal exemption on your own tax return. Further, some people cannot be claimed as your dependent. Generally, you may not claim a married person as a dependent if they file a joint return with their spouse. Also, to claim someone as a dependent, that person must be a U.S. citizen, U.S. resident alien, U.S. national or resident of Canada or Mexico for some part of the year. There is an exception to this rule for certain adopted children.

An individual who qualifies as another taxpayer's dependent cannot claim any amount for a personal exemption, even if the individual files a return and the other taxpayer does not actually claim the individual as a dependent. For instance, in a court case in which a college student filed his own return, he was not entitled to any deduction for his personal exemption because he also qualified as his parent's dependent, even though they did not actually claim his exemption.

Ancillary benefits. As discussed, a dependent cannot file joint returns or claim dependency exemptions. In addition, a dependent who is a qualifying relative cannot have income in excess of the annual exemption amount. However, these restrictions do not apply to a person's classified as dependents for several other tax items. If a person would qualify as a dependent but for filing a joint return, claiming dependency exemptions, or having gross income in excess of the exemption amount, the person is nonetheless treated as a dependent for the following purposes (not a complete list):

the taxpayer's head-of-household filing status;
the exception from the early distribution penalty for qualified retirement plan distributions used to pay health insurance premiums for an unemployed taxpayer's dependents;
the exclusion from income of amounts received under accident and health insurance plans;
the definition of a highly compensated participant for purposes of cafeteria plans;
the exception from the rules that allow certain amounts paid to maintain a student in the taxpayer's home to qualify as deductible charitable contributions;
the deduction for medical expenses incurred by the taxpayer's dependent;
the exclusion for distributions from an Archer medical savings account (MSA) that are used to pay a dependent's medical expenses;
the rules governing the deduction for qualified student loan interest; and the treatment of educational and medical indebtedness in calculating the value of a decedent's qualified family-owned business interests for purposes of the estate tax.

As you may gather, the rules associated with the dependency exemption can get complex rather quickly. If you need any assistance in sorting out any dependency exemption or related benefits, please you do hesitate to contact this office.

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