The AICPA has sent a letter dated August 13, 2018 asking for immediate guidance on issues arising from the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act related to S corporations and excess business losses under IRC §461(l).  This request was developed by the AICPA S Corporation Taxation and Trust, Estate, and Gift Taxation Technical Resource Panels and approved by the AICPA Tax Executive Committee.

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The IRS again looked at fuel rewards in Field Attorney Advice FAA 20180101F.  The topic had come up before with a slightly different program that ended up in the court (Giant Eagle Inc. v. Commissioner, Case No. 14-3961, CA3, reversing TC Memo 2014-146, 5/6/16) with the IRS losing and formally issuing a non-acquiescence on the decision (AOD 2016-03, 10/2/16).

But in this case the IRS decided that, unlike their view with regard to Giant Eagle, that this particular fuel rewards program did allow the taxpayer to claim a current deduction for issued but not yet redeemed rewards at the end of the taxpayer’s tax year.

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The a majority of the panel from the Third Circuit Court of Appeals determined that the Tax Court had misapplied the all events test in the case of Giant Eagle, Inc. v. Commissioner, Case No. 14-3961, CA3, reversing  TC Memo 2014‑146.

In Revenue Procedure 2015-39 the IRS had provided a safe harbor method of accounting that taxpayers filing on the accrual basis may use to determine economic performance on certain service contracts.