For 2018 partnership tax returns due in 2019, partnerships must report negative “tax basis” capital accounts on the Schedules K-1 for their partners. Perhaps recognizing that it may be difficult for some partnerships to timely comply with these new requirements, the IRS issued Notice 2019-20 on March 7, 2019, providing penalty relief under certain circumstances, discussed below.
On Thursday, December 20, 2018, the Tax Court released its opinion in Alternative Health Care Advocates et al v. Comm’r, 151 T.C. No. 13 (2018), a case involving the disallowance of deductions related to trafficking of marijuana mandated by Section 280E of the Internal Revenue Code. The Alternative Health Care Advocates opinion broke new ground by extending the scope of the deduction disallowance beyond the legal owner/seller of marijuana to an affiliated entity that participated in the marijuana sales.
In McNeill v. Commissioner, 148 T.C. No. 23 (June 19, 2017), the Tax Court held that taxpayer challenges to penalties imposed in the wake of a TEFRA partnership audit or litigation can be challenged in collection due process (CDP) proceedings. It was always clear that if a taxpayer had personal defenses to a penalty asserted at the partnership level, the taxpayer could pay the penalty (and any associated interest), file a claim for refund, and have his personal defenses considered by the IRS and the courts.
On May 23, 2017, IRS Officials announced in an industry webcast that the IRS began a campaign to identify foreign companies that should be filing Form 1120-F, but have not. The officials also warned that the IRS intends to follow up on every potential non-compliant company it identifies and refer some for further audit. Apparently initial letters have just been sent to companies or will be coming “very, very soon.”
In January, the IRS announced a rollout of its compliance campaigns targeting certain issues on which the IRS Large Business & International (LB&I) will focus its examinations. It is part of LB&I’s shift to issue-focused examinations in light of a diminished IRS budget. Since the announcement, LB&I has been conducting a series of webinars on its 13 new campaigns. On June 6, LB&I executives provided information on its Related-Party Transactions (RPT) campaign, which is one of the 13 campaigns.
The IRS proposed estate tax deficiencies of hundreds of millions of dollars against the Estate of Michael Jackson, accusing the Estate of undervaluing the assets held by the King of Pop at his death. Much of the case has been settled, but the parties still dispute the value of the Gloved One’s image and likeness, with the IRS contending it was worth $161 million and the estate contending the value was far less. A trial on this issue (along with the value of certain music catalogues) was held in February of 2017.
