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What’s The IRS Been Up to During the Pandemic? Let The Commissioner Fill You In

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Chuck Rettig is the 49th Commissioner of the IRS. As Commissioner, Rettig presides over the nation’s tax system, which collects more than $3.5 trillion in tax revenue each year. This revenue funds most government operations and public services. He manages an agency of about 80,000 employees and a budget of approximately $11 billion. In a recent post to the ” A Closer Look” page on the IRS website,  Mr. Rettig gave an upfront and closer look to the work the IRS has been doing during the pandemic.  He discusses in his post how pandemic-related issues are still causing the IRS to experience record levels of activity and despite all that, the agency is making progress and is serving taxpayers.  Here is the text of his September 14, 2021 column:

The IRS plays an important role in serving our country. We interact with more Americans than any other U.S. government agency – virtually every individual and business in the country. We process 96 percent of the funding for our nation’s vital programs, but our agency and our people have had to really step up in the past year and a half to provide even more support to Americans in need. And just like businesses and other agencies around the country, we had to pause or modify some operations during the pandemic until we had safe and secure remote options in place to enable our employees to perform their work and serve taxpayers. I am extremely proud of the dedication of our workforce toward helping American taxpayers fulfill their tax responsibilities and resolve tax issues while they dealt with the COVID-19 situation.

While we had to temporarily scale back operations, important economic relief measures passed by Congress during the pandemic gave us many new responsibilities, and we have proudly worked to deliver Economic Impact Payments, advance payments of the Child Tax Credit (CTC) and many other critical initiatives in 2020 and 2021. We appreciate and understand the frustration caused by the high volume of manually processed returns, the limited information available to taxpayers about the status of the return processing, the refund delays, and the difficulty reaching IRS employees. We also understand that complex tax issues, recent legislation and the pandemic have  record numbers of taxpayers looking for help.

At every turn, our employees have gone above and beyond during the pandemic to keep our operations going, and through it all, we have appreciated the patience and understanding of taxpayers and the tax community. Even so, and despite our best efforts, pandemic-related issues are still causing us to experience record levels of activity that continue to affect operations across the agency, including the processing of tax returns and refunds. To put this in perspective, the IRS has received 199 million phone calls the first six months of this year – five times the normal annual volume – and we have manually reviewed 11 times more tax returns this year (11 million) to correct errors and gather missing information from taxpayers.

I am committed to ensuring the IRS will continue to do all we can to serve taxpayers. During the pandemic, we have had to find new ways to pursue our mission. As we faced enormous challenges, we didn’t always get it right, but we worked hard, often with limited resources. Where possible, we have redeployed resources to accommodate the increased demand. Our goal is to provide the quality of assistance taxpayers deserve, but we have been unable to satisfy this goal despite recent efforts to overcome significant challenges. On behalf of the entire IRS workforce, I want to assure you we will continue making progress, working together with Congress, the Administration and our partners inside and outside the tax community.

We know this has been and continues to be a frustrating time for many taxpayers and tax professionals – and it’s been a challenging time for all of us at the IRS as well. We have done the best we could under the circumstances, and we will continue to do our best as we face the current challenges. Our response to the unprecedented COVID challenges – including issuing almost $1.5 trillion in combined historic economic relief and individual refunds – illustrates the importance of every American to the IRS and the importance of the IRS to every American. I want to give you a glimpse of what we’re facing inside the IRS, and what we’re doing – to help struggling taxpayers and to get caught up during this unprecedented time.

 

SUI Update

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As of today the following states have released or announced their SUI wage bases for 2021.

 

State Wage Base State Wage Base State Wage Base State Wage Base
AK $43,600 KS $14,000 NM $27,000 WI $14,000
AL $8,000 KY $11,100 NV $33,400 WV $12,000
AR $10,000 LA $7,700 NY $11,800 WY $27,300
AZ $7,000 MA OH $9,000
CA $7,000 MD $8,500 OK $24,000
CO $13,600 ME OR $43,800
CT $15,000 MI PA $10,000
DC $9,000 MN RI $24,600/

$26,100
DE $16,500 MO $11,000 SC $14,000
FL $7,000 MS SD $15,000
GA $9,500 MT $35,300 TN
HI $47,400 NC $26,000 TX $9,000
IA $32,400 ND $38,500 UT $38,900
ID $43,000 NE $9,000/24,000 VA $8,000
IL $12,960 NH VT $14,100
IN $9,500 NJ $36,200 WA $56,500

White Paper: Disaster Payments and the IRS

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We are always hearing in the news about the latest disaster in the nation. Whether it be wild fires in California or flooding in Texas. Natural disasters do happen and can be annual occurrences in some parts of the nation.  When this happens, it is natural to want to help those individuals who are personally affected especially if it strikes close to home like in the case of a co-worker.  When a co-worker loses a home to a wild fire or must move out due to flood damage even employers want to help out.  But when an employer wants to help, does that change the nature of the disaster grantassistance. In other words,  if co-workers take up a collection it is one thing, but what if the employer gives the employee a grant to help cover the costs not reimbursed by insurance? Is it then taxable income and taxes must be deducted? Actually, it may not have to be. Our white paper this time is on Handling Disaster Relief Payments in Payroll.  It explains how and when these types of payments can be made and the taxation requirements.  We hope you find it useful.

white paper disaster payments 2016

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Taxation of Wellness Programs

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The Office of Chief Counsel of the Internal Revenue Service has issued a memorandum on “Tax Treatment of Wellness Program Benefits and Employer Reimbursement of Premiums Provided Pre-tax Under a Section 125 Cafeteria Plan”.  Not quite a catchy title I admit but it does contain guidance that is useful.  The two questions  that were at issue are as follows:

  1. May an employer exclude from an employee’s income under section 105 or section 106 cash rewards paid to an employee for participating in a wellness program?
  2.  May an employer exclude from an employee’s income under section 105 or section 106 reimbursements of premiums for participating in a wellness program if the premiums for the wellness program were originally made by salary reduction through a section 125 cafeteria plan?

The conclusion reached by the Chief Counsel was no on both counts. 1. An employer may not exclude from an employee’s gross income payments of cash rewards for participating in a wellness program. 2. An employer may not exclude from an employee’s gross income reimbursements of premiums for participating in a wellness program if the premiums for the wellness program were originally made by salary reduction through a section 125 cafeteria plan.

For those of you who need to research this closer I included the link to the memorandum issued on April 14, 2016 and released on May 27, 2016.  They review three different situations and then provide the law and analysis you may need if this affects any benefits you are offering.

 

Last chance to register for early-bird pricing for our next webinar How to Finally Write Those Payroll Procedures.  Early-bird pricing of only $99 ends at 5pm PDT today.

 

The Holidays are Upon Us and for Payroll That Could Mean Taxing Gifts

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‘Tis the season for celebrating.  Office holiday parties, year end bonuses and most of all gifts from the company.  Maybe a $25 gift card to help with the holiday dinner or a nice ham or turkey.  The idea of getting something from the boss is a joyous and wonderful idea for most American workers.  But to payroll, the giving of gifts to employees means only one thing, the annual argument over taxation!

The Internal Revenue Code (IRC) requires that any payment made to an employee that is cash or the cash equivalent is taxable wages to the employee.  As stated on the IRS website “Cash or cash equivalent items provided by the employer are never excludable from income… Gift certificates that are redeemable for general merchandise or have a cash equivalent value are not de minimis benefits and are taxable.”

Unfortunately payroll gets to play “The Grinch” when it comes to taxing gift certificates.  But what about an actual ham or turkey or other such item?  Do we have to tax that as well?  On that one we get to play Santa!  No taxation is required on holiday gifts with a low fair market value such as a ham or turkey.

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California Enacting Electronic Filing Requirement for All Employers

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The state legislature has passed AB 1245, a bill that requires California employers of 10 or more employees to submit quarterly payroll tax returns and pay the associated payroll taxes electronically over the California Employment Development Department website starting in 2017. The bill also requires all employers to file and pay electronically effective January 1, 2018. The bill awaits the governor signature and he is expected to sign it.

Today is the last day to receive updates through this blog.  Starting on Monday, August 3rd, the blog will be devoted to discussing current payroll issues and questions.

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KY Unveils WRAPS

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The Kentucky Department of Revenue has launched a new online personal income tax withholding return and payment system (WRAPS). Employers can use WRAPS to file returns (annual, quarterly, monthly, and twice-monthly returns), view and amend previously filed online returns, request refunds, and pay withholding tax using the enterprise electronic payment system.

IRS Releases Info on Third-Party Sick Pay Recap Form

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The IRS has released Notice 2015-06 which describes the rules for filing Form 8922, Third-Party Sick Pay Recap. This is an annual form that must be filed with the IRS which replaces the third-party sick pay recaps that were filed with the Social Security Administration. Form 8922 is used to report total amounts of certain sick pay paid to employees by a third party.