WHAT’S THE BUZZ, TELL ME WHAT’S A HAPPENNIN’?

 

* The NSTP BLOG warns “Beware of Offer in Compromise Mills” –

“Offer in compromise mills aggressively promote offers in compromise in misleading ways to people who clearly do not meet the qualifications, often costing taxpayers thousands of dollars.” 

* “Taxgirl” Kelly Phillips Erb provides “Answers To Your Individual Tax Questions About The One Big Beautiful Bill Act” at her FORBES.COM blog.  This is a paid subscription site – so you may or may not be able to access this post.

* For more on OBBBA, Kate Schubel suggests we “Save More with Tax Credits for Energy-Efficient Home Improvements While You Still Can” at KIPLINGER.COM (highlight is hers) -

“If you're planning a few home improvements that will boost the energy efficiency of your house, you'll want to call your contractor soon.

A new GOP tax bill known as the ‘One Big Beautiful Bill’ (OBBB) ends a slew of tax provisions for many ‘clean energy’ tax incentives, including the electric vehicle tax credit, a tax break for home EV charging equipment, and yes, those for energy-efficient home improvements.

In other words, several ‘green energy’ tax incentives are coming to an end.”

* In an earlier BUZZ I quoted ACCOUNTING TODAY editor Dan Hill as suggesting now was a good time to cheat on taxes.

Well Michael Cohn reinforces this idea, reporting “IRS high-income taxpayer audits in doubt after layoffs", also at ACCOUNTING TODAY -

“The Internal Revenue Service's plan under the Biden administration to audit high-income taxpayers appears less likely after staffing and budget cuts under the Trump administration, according to a new report.”

* According to an item in the latest TAXBOOK News email, National Taxpayer Advocate Erin M. Collins’ recent Fiscal Year 2026 Objectives Report to Congress indicates she is worried about the Trump Administration’s reduction in IRS staffing (highlights are mine) -

“Collins warned that without improved technology in place, IRS staffing cuts could jeopardize the success of next year’s filing season. To deliver a successful filing season, the IRS needs a sufficient number of trained employees to program its processing systems, develop and disseminate timely and clear guidance on tax law changes, answer telephone calls and process correspondence, among other things. 

Between the start of the 2025 filing season and June, the IRS workforce decreased from about 102,000 employees to fewer than 76,000, a drop of about 26% (after taking into account employees who accepted an early resignation offer but will remain on rolls through September 30).” 

* The NTA’s report also includes the following statistics on the 2025 filing season (for 2024 returns) –

“Individual Returns Received 140,633,000

Individual Returns Processed 138,057,000

Refunds Issued 86,021,000

Average Refund Amount $2,942

Refunds Issued by Direct Deposit 81,032,000”

It is good to see the high use of direct deposit.  And we are told “over 95% of processed returns were filed electronically” – so about 5% of returns were still filed manually.

THE LAST WORD

Did you know Trump also suffers from "Chronic Intelligence Insufficiency"?

TTFN