Security Summit: Tax pros should encourage clients to obtain IP PINs to protect against tax-related identity theft

 

The IRS, state tax agencies and the nation’s tax industry – working together as the Security Summit  –  need assistance from tax professionals to spread the word to clients that the IP PIN is now available to anyone who can verify their identity.

“An Identity Protection PIN prevents someone else from filing a tax return using your Social Security number,” said Chuck Rettig, IRS commissioner. “We’ve now made the IP PIN available to anyone who can verify their identity. This is a free way for taxpayers to protect themselves, but we need the help of tax professionals to make sure more people know about it.”

The IRS created Publication 5367, IP PIN Opt-In Program for Taxpayers, in English and Spanish, so that tax professionals could print and share the IP PIN information with clients. There are also special posters available in English and Spanish.

For security reasons, tax professionals cannot obtain an IP PIN on behalf of clients. Taxpayers must obtain their own IP PIN.

Read the full news release:  Encourage clients to obtain IP PINs

More than 2.2 million additional Economic Impact Payments disbursed under the American Rescue Plan

 The Internal Revenue Service, U.S. Department of the Treasury, and the Bureau of the Fiscal Service announced today they have disbursed more than 2.2 million additional Economic Impact Payments under the American Rescue Plan.

Today's announcement covering the most recent six weeks of the effort brings the total disbursed so far under the American Rescue Plan to more than 171 million payments. They represent a total value of more than $400 billion since these payments began rolling out to Americans in batches on March 12.

The IRS will continue to disburse Economic Impact Payments on a weekly basis. Ongoing payments will be sent to eligible individuals for whom the IRS previously did not have information to issue a payment but who recently filed a tax return, as well to people who qualify for "plus-up" payments.

Special reminder for those who don't normally file a tax return

Although payments are automatic for most people, the IRS continues to urge people who don't normally file a tax return and haven't received Economic Impact Payments to file a 2020 tax return to get all the benefits they're entitled to under the law, including tax credits such as the 2020 Recovery Rebate Credit, the Child Tax Credit, and the Earned Income Tax Credit. Filing a 2020 tax return will also assist the IRS in determining whether someone is eligible for monthly advance payments of the 2021 Child Tax Credit, which began earlier this month.

The IRS has provided an online Non-Filer tool to allow individuals who weren’t required to file (and have not filed) a tax return for 2020 to file a simplified tax return. This simplified tax return allows eligible individuals to register for advance Child Tax Credit payments and the third Economic Impact Payment, as well as claim the 2020 Recovery Rebate Credit. Free tax return preparation is also available for qualifying people.

The IRS has launched the Tax Pro Account for tax professionals

The IRS has launched the new Tax Pro Account on irs.gov. This new feature is one of many recent enhancements to the Online Account for individuals. It provides the ability for taxpayers to connect online with their tax professional. The tax professional will long into the Tax Pro Account to digitally initiate Power of Attorney (POA) and Tax Information Authorization (TIA) requests. Once completed and submitted by the tax professional, the authorization requests will appear in the taxpayers' Online Account for their review, approval or rejection and electronic signature. Because the taxpayers' identities already are verified at the time of login, they simply check a box as their signature and submit the authorization request to the IRS. If completely accurately, the request will go directly to the Centralized Authorization File (CAF) database and will not require manual processing. Some requests will be available immediately while some may take up to 48 hours.

View the full IRS Announcement

The IRS has created the following taxpayer facing products to increase awareness of this new process.

• Publication 5533, Why You Should Create an IRS Online Account – Share with taxpayers; outlines the benefits of having an IRS Online Account
• Publication 5533-A, How to Submit Authorizations Using Tax Pro Account and Online Account – Share with taxpayers; outlines how the new digital authorization process works
• Publication 5533-B, Benefits of Tax Pro Account and Digital Authorizations - Share with tax professional colleagues; outlines the benefits of Tax Pro Account and digital requests

IRS: Monthly Child Tax Credit payments begin

 IRS: Monthly Child Tax Credit payments begin

WASHINGTON — The Internal Revenue Service and the Treasury Department announced today that millions of American families have started receiving monthly Child Tax Credit payments as direct deposits begin posting in bank accounts and checks arrive in mailboxes.

This first batch of advance monthly payments worth roughly $15 billion reached about 35 million families today across the country. About 86% were sent by direct deposit.

The payments will continue each month. The IRS urged people who normally aren’t required to file a tax return to explore the tools available on IRS.gov. These tools can help determine eligibility for the advance Child Tax Credit or help people file a simplified tax return to sign up for these payments as well as Economic Impact Payments, and other credits you may be eligible to receive.

Under the American Rescue Plan, each payment is up to $300 per month for each child under age 6 and up to $250 per month for each child ages 6 through 17. Normally, anyone who receives a payment this month will also receive a payment each month for the rest of 2021 unless they unenroll.  Besides the July 15 payment, payment dates are: Aug. 13, Sept. 15, Oct. 15, Nov. 15 and Dec. 15.
 
Here are further details on these payments:

• Families will see the direct deposit payments in their accounts starting today, July 15. For those receiving payment by paper check, they should remember to take into consideration the time it takes to receive it by mail.
• Payments went to eligible families who filed 2019 or 2020 income tax returns.
• Tax returns processed by June 28 are reflected in these payments. This includes people who don’t typically file a return, but during 2020 successfully registered for Economic Impact Payments using the IRS Non-Filers tool or in 2021 successfully used the Non-filer Sign-up Tool for Advance CTC, also on IRS.gov.
• Payments are automatic. Aside from filing a tax return, including a simplified return from the Non-Filer Sign-Up tool, families don’t have to do anything if they are eligible to receive monthly payments.

Additional information is available on a special Advance Child Tax Credit 2021 page, designed to provide the most up-to-date information about the credit and the advance payments. It’s at IRS.gov/childtaxcredit2021.

Client Accounting Suite/Premier (CAS/P) version 20.5 is available

The Client Accounting Suite 20.5 update is ready for download. This update contains the latest Form 941 changes. At this time, the auto-update feature in Client Accounting Suite is not available for this update so you will need to log into the support site to manually download and apply the update. As a reminder, Form 941 is due July 31, 2021. Please refer to the links below for the appropriate support site.

ATX

TaxWise

Client Accounting Suite Premier

Regulatory Updates

The following regulatory information is now available for Client Accounting Suite and Client Accounting Suite Premier:

Federal Forms

• Updated forms to be used for 2nd Quarter. 2021 941 and Worksheets are included with this update.
• 2020 943-X and 944-X are available in blank forms.

2021 State Withholding Rates

The following state withholding calculations have been updated for 2021:

• New York State
• New York - Yonkers

Software Updates

The 20.5 version of Client Accounting Suite includes the following software updates:

• Export for the 2nd Quarter 2021 941 has been enabled to Payroll Compliance.
• The Vendor Check Listing Report was updated to include the correct 1099 codes for the 1099 vendors.

Scheduled Updates

• September 2021 - Client Accounting Suite 20.6 - State withholding and form updates
• November 2021 - Client Accounting Suite 21.0 - Annual Release

IRS readies nearly 4 million refunds for unemployment compensation overpayments

 The Internal Revenue Service announced today it will issue another round of refunds this week to nearly 4 million taxpayers who overpaid their taxes on unemployment compensation received last year.

Refunds by direct deposit will begin July 14 and refunds by paper check will begin July 16. The IRS previously issued refunds related to unemployment compensation exclusion in May and June, and it will continue to issue refunds throughout the summer.

To ease the burden on taxpayers, the IRS has been reviewing the Forms 1040 and 1040SR that were filed prior to the law’s enactment to identify those people who are due an adjustment. For taxpayers who overpaid, the IRS will either refund the overpayment, apply it to other outstanding taxes or other federal or state debts owed.

Click here to read the full IRS News Release