The IRS is at it again… Since they were shut down on their authority to mandate all tax preparers get continuing education and take a competency test, they have now developed a “voluntary certification” that preparers can opt into. The program is called the Annual Federal Tax Refresher Course; and yes, successful completion of the […]
Just as quickly as we update our ITIN materials and guidelines the ITIN policy office within the IRS has changed their stance yet again! Just released: ITINs (Individual Taxpayer Identification Numbers) will expire after 5 consecutive years of non-filing use. This is a change from the services’ previously stated policy of automatically expiring ITINs after […]
Federal Direct offices will be closed in observance of Independence Day on July 4th, 2014. Our offices will reopen Monday July 7th, 2014 at the normal time of 9am EST. If you have an emergency during this time please contact your account representative directly or contact support at: support@federaldirecttax.com. An after hours representative will contact […]
The IRS has been alerted to a new email phishing scam. The emails appear to be from the IRS and include a link to a bogus web site intended to mirror the official IRS web site. These emails contain the direction “you are to update your IRS e-file immediately.” The emails mention USA.gov and IRSgov, […]
A bill recently passed by the Senate taxwriters includes a provision that would revive and expand the use of private debt collectors, requiring the service to hand over to private firms nearly all the inactive tax receivables. The way the bill reads, that would include unpaid fines for not having health coverage, a penalty that […]
The first week of the tax season has seen some interesting actions taken by the IRS. They have actively taken aim at both high fraud tax offices and check cashing facilities that seem to consistently be in the middle of of these problematic returns. In prior years, the IRS has taken more of a reactionary […]
The IRS released insight that tax returns filed between the 17th and 24th are experiencing delays in funding, but returns filed after that 24th should be back inline with the standard funding cycle. IRS fraud detection systems are at the root of the delays. Over $800,000 in fraudulent tax filings were said to have been […]
The IRS’ PTIN website for renewing and obtaining Preparer Tax Identification Numbers has been a challenge this year, to say the least. Ever since mid December, the PTIN site has been broken and under maintenance more than it has been up. New PTIN applicants have not been able to complete the process and pay for […]
Due to previously scheduled maintenance on IRS systems, the PTIN system will be unavailable for NEW applications from 5:00 PM ET on Friday, December 23 until approximately 9:00 AM ET on Monday, January 9. Preparers are still able to renew existing PTINs during this window. We sincerely apologize for the inconvenience.”
The IRS has released the final revisions to the 2011 tax year publication 17. This publication is probably the most comprehensive set of information covering individual tax return filing, and is also one of the forms that will be available to you while taking the upcoming RTRP examination. You can access a downloadable form of […]