News

Georgia seniors age 62 and over qualify for the Georgia Retirement Income Exclusion, which can shield thousands of dollars of retirement and investment income from Georgia State income tax.

The exclusion covers $35,000 of income for seniors ages 62 through 64, and $65,000 of income for seniors age 65 and older.

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The Journal of Accountancy has released its business tax guide for the 2019 tax filing year.

Download the pdf here.

The Internal Revenue Service has announced that employee contribution limits to employer retirement plans will increase by $500 in 2020.  This includes 401(k) plans, 403(b) plans, most 457 plans and the federal Thrift Savings Plan.

Also, the contribution limit for SIMPLE IRA plans will increase to $13,000.

See the IRS news release for details.

The Internal Revenue Service has begun sending letters to taxpayers who sold virtual currencies and failed to report the sales on their income tax returns.

The IRS has announced that more than 10,000 taxpayers will receive these letters.  Some of the letter recipients have been identified to the IRS based on information reported by virtual currency exchanges, some of which have been cooperating with the IRS requests to submit data on their clients' virtual currency transactions.

There are three forms of the letter, called Letter 6173, Letter 6174 or Letter 6174-A, which are aimed at helping taxpayers better understand the tax filing obligations relating to virtual currency transactions.

IRS Notice 2014-21 contains more details regarding IRS regulations covering virtual currency transactions, and the obligation of taxpayers to report those transactions on their tax returns.

The IRS recently issued a private letter ruling that part of the cost of genetic testing may be tax deductible as a qualified medical expense if part of the service includes a medical analysis of the results of the genetic test and results in a report that is presented to the taxpayer's health care providers.

A private letter ruling is issued in response to a request from an individual taxpayer for IRS guidance regarding a tax issue.  It may not be cited as a precedent by others taxpayers, but is viewed by tax professionals as a good indicator of the IRS thinking on a particular issue.

Find more details in this article from accounting web.

The Internal Revenue Service is automatically waiving the estimated tax penalty for some taxpayers who have already filed their 2018 tax returns and did not claim a penalty waiver.

The IRS earlier this year lowered the usual penalty threshold of payment of 90% of the tax owed on the return, to 80%, to help taxpayers who, under the new tax laws, came up short of required estimated tax payments for 2018.

If you filed your tax return before mid-August and paid an underpayment penalty, you may qualify for a penalty waiver.  Over the next few weeks, the IRS will be mailing out notices granting this relief to affected taxpayer.  Taxpayers who qualify for relief under the lower 80% threshold will receive refunds of the penalty and any interest paid when they filed their return.

For details, see the IRS news release.