A HUUUGE JOB FOR THE IRS

“The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act” is now the law of the land.  As I said in my book THE GOP TAX ACT AND THE NEW 1040 –

“This Act drastically changed the United State Tax Code.  For 2018 through 2025, or until new tax legislation is enacted, the Tax Cut and Jobs Act will affect every income tax return filed – both business and individual.”  

Interpreting and implementing the new tax laws will be a massive job for the IRS.  Because the Act was so hastily thrown together there is so much that is unclear. 

The latest issue of the National Association of Tax Professional’s TAXPRO MONTHLY discussed the massive job ahead.  Here are some take-aways from this discussion:

(1) The IRS has created a “Tax Reform Implementation Office” (TRIO) for “establishing and monitoring implementation actin plans and ensuring communications with external and internal stakeholders and taxpayers”.

(2) The Service now has a page on its website to answer questions about the Act.  Click here.

(3) The IRS forms, schedules and instructions that need to be revised will be released to the public for review and comment sometime this summer.

(4) The IRS has said it will need to hire 1,734 new full-time positions to implement tax reform over the next two years. 

Let us hope that Congress will increase the IRS budget appropriately to properly and competently implement and deal with what it has wrought.

Also because of the errors resulting from the Act’s hasty creation there will need to be “technical correction” legislation passed.  I do believe this is already being worked on.

It is difficult to properly advise clients about how to respond to the changes because there still is so much that is not known.

TTFN