The Internal Revenue Code §6672(a) Trust Fund Recovery Penalty (“TFRP”) is among the most formidable tools in the IRS utility belt, and any party overseeing withheld payroll taxes for his or her employer should be aware of it, and the unusual danger it poses. It is very unlike other IRS penalties.
Since 1917, the IRS has allowed individuals to take a tax deduction for giving to charitable organizations. However, many taxpayers may not be aware of the many stipulations, requirements, and limitations that various tax laws impose on their charitable contributions. For an individual looking to maximize both the impact of their donation and their charitable deduction, some planning and foresight is necessary.
Tax planning primarily involves applying a taxpayer’s facts to the current and future tax laws to determine the best outcome, and providing advice regarding how to achieve that outcome. When tax rules are similar in the current and following year, this often involves deferring income and accelerating expenses, to take advantage of the time value of the deferred taxes. However, when different tax rates or treatments apply to the two years, permanent tax savings often can be achieved with proper planning.
While many financial institutions are trying to figure out where to begin with the new Current Expected Credit Loss standard (colloquially referred to as CECL), an often overlooked aspect of the standard is the new disclosure requirements that will become effective upon adoption. These new disclosures are intended to provide financial statement users with a clearer picture as to the realizability of assets an institution holds at each reporting period, as well as changes in expected credit losses that have occurred during the period, and will result in a number of changes to the disclosures required under today’s standards. Let’s take a look at some of these changes in more detail.
On October 23, 2017, the Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”) approved the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board’s (“PCAOB”) proposal to adopt a new auditing standard, AS 3101, The Auditor’s Report on an Audit of Financial Statements When the Auditor Expresses an Unqualified Opinion, and related amendments to other auditing standards (the “standard”).
Unless the myriad other world events that are making headlines have your undivided attention, you are aware that a proposed tax bill continues to make its way through the legislative process. If signed into law, it will represent the largest overhaul of the tax code in the United States in over thirty years.
The Financial Accounting Standards Board has been extremely busy in the past several years issuing new accounting standards, some of which will have a broad impact. Following is a partial listing of Accounting Standards Updates (ASUs) in the implementation stages that are of interest to the financial institutions industry.