In Revenue Procedure 2017-37 the IRS provided updated numbers for 2018 for health savings accounts and the related high deductible health plans.

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Although the TEFRA Partnership audit rules are now living on borrowed time, cases looking at new issues continue to arise under those rules, and many involve concepts that likely will carry over to the new partnership audit regime.  One such issue arose in the case of Malone v. Commissioner, 148 TC No. 16.

Congress in 1997 modified the TEFRA partnership audit rules to bring certain issues involving penalties applicable to partnership items under the TEFRA rules where the matter had to be decided in a partnership proceeding, and not in proceedings for individual partners.

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In the case of Sotiropoulos v. Commissioner, TC Memo 2017-75 argued that amounts she received from the United Kingdom for claims she submitted related to what the UK government was claiming in UK courts as tax shelters were not tax refunds.  She noted that the UK government was challenging those shelters in court and she believed it was likely she would need to repay those funds.

When a taxpayer claims a foreign tax credit under IRC §905(c)(1), she is required to notify the IRS of any later refund of some or all of the taxes used to compute the credit pursuant to IRC §905(c)(3), normally by filing an amended return.

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The exclusion for gain from the sale of qualified §1202 stock now is at 100% for stock acquired after September 27, 2010 so long as the taxpayer holds it for five years.  But a number of businesses are excluded from issuing such favored stock.  In PLR 201717010 the IRS looks at whether a taxpayer’s business would cause it to fail the test.

The potential benefit of §1202 is one of the reasons a small business might still consider forming as a C corporation (S corporation stock does not qualify for §1202 treatment) if it can otherwise meet the requirements, which will include a limit on gross assets, an “active business” test and the business cannot be on the list of “prohibited” businesses found at IRC §1202(e)(3).

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In the case of Redfield v. Commissioner, TC Memo 2017-71 the Tax Court was presented with a taxpayer that the Court clearly respected.  Mr. Redfield had served as a Marine, with tours of duty in Afghanistan, tours from which, in the words of the Court, “he emerged far from unscathed…”  But, unfortunately for Mr. Redfield, these considerations did not change the application of the rules regarding the time by which a taxpayer must file an election to claim the foreign earned income exclusion under IRC §911(a)(1).

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The IRS Tax Exempt and Government Entities division has published guidelines (TEGE-04-0417-0016) for agents to use to determine if the rules of IRC §72(p)(2) have been followed regarding the maximum amount an employee may borrow from a qualified retirement plan.

Under IRC §72(p)(1) a loan to a plan participant is to be treated as a taxable distribution to the participant.  However, if the loan meets the requirements of IRC §72(p)(2) it will not be treated as a taxable distribution.  Obviously, since an employee isn’t likely to want a loan on which he/she pays tax on and then still must repay, plans that offer loans generally have terms that require the loan to comply with the provisions of IRC §72(p)(2).

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In Field Attorney Advice 20171601F the IRS concluded that a taxpayer had used an inappropriate method to determine wages related to in-house research expense.  That allocation was used by the taxpayer in computing its research credit under IRC §41.

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In Rev. Rul. 2017-10 the IRS has published the terminal charge and standard industry fare level mileage rates for the first six months of 2017.  These rates are used under Reg. §1.61-21(g)’s rule for valuing noncommercial flights on an employer-provided aircraft. 

The rates are revised every six months, and these rates cover flights occurring between January 1, 2017 and June 30, 2017.

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While it is not impossible to qualify as a real estate professional under IRC §469(c)(7) if the taxpayer has a non-real estate full time job, it certainly is going to be difficult.  The limited number of hours in the year created a credibility problem for the taxpayer in Penley v. Commissioner, TC Memo 2017‑65, causing the Tax Court to find he had proven he qualified as a real estate professional.

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In what now appears to be an annual event, the IRS has released a revised comprehensive list of accounting method changes in Rev. Proc. 2017-30.  The new ruling replaces Rev. Proc. 2016‑29, issued approximately one year earlier.

The document is 337 pages long in the original PDF format published by the IRS.  The significant changes section begins on page 325 and continues through to page 330 of the document.  The new revenue procedure is effective for a Form 3115 filed on or after April 19, 2017 for a year of change ending on or after August 31, 2016.

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The IRS claimed that prior to the publication of Rev. Proc. 2016-47 those involved in the examination of a taxpayer’s return were barred from considering granting a waiver of the 60-day rollover period—the taxpayer had to have applied for a private letter ruling request for a waiver under Rev. Proc. 2003-16.  The Tax Court, ruling in the case of Trimmer v. Commissioner, 148 TC No. 14, did not find that the IRS was operating under any such restriction and ruled that the Tax Court had jurisdiction to consider whether the IRS had abused its discretion in refusing to grant such a waiver.

Mr. Trimmer suffered from major depressive disorder after a job he believed he had secured for himself to supplement his income after retiring from the New York Police Department fell through and he was unable to find substitute work.  Shortly after he began suffering from the disorder he received distribution checks from his retirement account.  He left the checks on his dresser at home for over a month and then deposited them into a regular, non-IRA bank account.

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Rev. Rul. 2003-7 provides that variable prepaid futures contracts (VFPCs) represent “open transactions” that are not subject to tax until the contract is finally settled and do not represent constructive sales of the stock under IRC §1259.  The case of Estate of McKelvey v. Commissioner, 148 T.C. No. 13 looks at whether an extension of the VFPC represents either a taxable settlement of the contract or a constructive sale of the related shares under IRC §1259, a question not previously addressed by the Tax Court.

Under a variable prepaid forward contract, a taxpayer agrees to pledge a certain amount of stock in exchange for receiving a payment of cash.  The contract provides that, at a specified date in the future the taxpayer will deliver either a number of shares of stock (either from the original pledged group or other shares the taxpayer has) or a cash payment.  The number of shares to be delivered varies over a specified range of shares, based on the price of the stock on the date the transaction is closed.  The shares that are pledged represent the maximum number that may need to be delivered.  As well, the party pledging the shares would retain the right to close out the contract at any time before the final settlement date, either by transferring shares or cash.

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In the case of Shea Homes, Inc. v. Commissioner, 142 TC No.3, the question of the scope of contracts of a homebuilder when making use of the completed contract method was the key issue.  And the IRS did not like the answer that either the Tax Court or the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals gave, eventually releasing Action on Decision 2017-03 announcing the agency will not acquiesce in the decision, following it only on cases appealable to the Ninth Circuit that cannot be distinguished.

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Some additional guidance has emerged on the self-employment tax status of member-managers of an PLLC in the case of Castigliola, et al v. Commissioner, TC Memo 2017‑62. 

Like the members in the case of Renkemeyer, Campbell, & Weaver, LLP v. Commissioner, 136 TC 137 (2011) the individual members in this case were attorneys who practiced in a law firm.  However, unlike the attorneys in Renkemeyer, these attorneys did not claim that all income from the law firm was not subject to self-employment tax.

Rather, the attorneys had consulted with an experienced CPA well versed in tax matters and agreed to pay out guaranteed payments to each member that was equivalent to a reasonable salary for an attorney of that individual’s experience level in their locality.  The guaranteed payments were reported as self-employment income and self-employment tax was paid on those amounts.  To the extent the law firm had income in excess of the guaranteed payments, those amounts flowing out on the K-1s were treated as income not subject to self-employment tax.

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The Courts generally look to an “actual economic outlay” that makes the taxpayer poorer in some objective fashion to allow the taxpayer to claim basis in debt for an S corporation.  In the case of Phillips v. Commissioner, T.C. Memo 2017-61, the taxpayer argued that the fact that judgments had been entered against her should give her the right to treat a portion of the debt as basis for claiming losses.

The taxpayer owned 50% of an S corporation that fell on hard times during the real estate crisis, defaulting on several loans which had been guaranteed by Sandra.  The banks sued to collect on the guarantees and obtain judgments against Sandra.  However, Sandra had not actually made any payments on the debts.

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The IRS announced the beginning of the use of private collection agencies to collect overdue taxes in News Release IR-2017-74.  The program, mandated by Congress in late 2015, requires the IRS to transfer certain overdue accounts to private collection agencies. 

The release begins by describing how the program will work, noting that the IRS will first notify the taxpayer that their account is being transferred to a private agency and will send along Publication 4518 to describe the process for the taxpayer in question.

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In the case of the Mescalero Apache Tribe v. Commissioner, 148 TC No. 11 the Tax Court had to consider the taxpayer’s request to obtain information from the IRS regarding other taxpayers, specifically if those taxpayers had reported income received from the Tribe on their income tax returns.  Or, as the IRS claimed, did the law (specifically IRC §6103) prevent the agency from disclosing such information about other taxpayers.

The question arose because the IRS had decided in an examination that the Tribe had failed to treat certain individuals as employees that were, in the agency’s view, truly employees.  While the Tribe is still contesting that fact, the Tribe sought information from the IRS to reduce the amount due. Specifically, the Tribe wished to know if contractors they had been unable to contact had paid their taxes.

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Should a corporation that was required to incur certain costs to obtain regulatory approval for a merger be required to capitalize those costs as facilitative costs under IRC §1.263(a)-5(a)?  In Chief Counsel Advice 201713010 the IRS National Office decided the answer was no.

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