In the blogs: Spanning the globe

Service with a smell; disclosure expectations; new to us; and other highlights from our favorite tax bloggers.

Big days

• The Tax Professional (http://thetaxprofessional.blogspot.com/): The blogger doesn’t oppose requiring PTIN holders to complete a minimum number of CPE hours in federal income taxation to maintain their PTIN. The blogger does oppose requiring all paid preparers to take a government-administered competency test to maintain their PTIN and continue to be allowed to prepare tax returns. (“After 50 tax seasons of preparing 1040s without incident, I have no intention of taking a test now to prove I know what I have been doing for the past 50 seasons.”)
• Don’t Mess with Taxes (http://dontmesswithtaxes.typepad.com/): July 15 is a big day for the IRS and taxpayers: Millions will start getting Advance Child Tax Credit payments, and the IRS resumes additional collection and enforcement actions that, due to the pandemic, had been suspended. The latter covers two areas that had yet to return to regular activity — tax levies in coordination with state and federal agencies and potential passport revocations due to seriously delinquent tax debt.
• Taxable Talk (http://www.taxabletalk.com/): How and why the IRS smells like something other than roses these days.
• National Taxpayer Advocate (https://www.taxpayeradvocate.irs.gov/taxnews-information/blogs-nta/): Steps the IRS can take to improve taxpayer service and communication.
• Taxbuzz (https://www.taxbuzz.com/blog): A recent chat with tax pros tackled such questions as Biden’s threshold for the ultra-rich, more new limitations on 1031 exchanges, and what somebody should at last settle on as the corporate tax rate.

Spanning the globe

• Mauled Again (http://mauledagain.blogspot.com/): Many people in the anti-tax crowd also belong to the anti-regulation crowd. Yet when something close to a free market generates an outcome that is disliked by advocates of free markets, they are quick to seek regulation of the market. The latest example of this hypocrisy is the lawsuit filed by the de facto head of the political party that rests its approach on “freedom” and “free markets” while not hesitating to advocate regulation of what it dislikes.
• Tax Foundation (https://taxfoundation.org/blog): The United Nations recently released its annual “World Investment Report,” which shows the dramatic fall in global foreign direct investment caused by the pandemic. A partial recovery is expected for 2021. But uncertainty remains high, with the ongoing international tax negotiations at the OECD being a contributing factor.
• Allison Christians (https://www.allisonchristians.com/blog): One hundred and thirty countries have in principle agreed to build a world in which some number of large multinationals face a minimum rate of income tax on a base of income that will be roughly harmonized in some fashion. A look at the still-complex formulations in pictures.
• Taxjar (http://blog.taxjar.com/): States’ “sales tax” actually simplifies a hodgepodge of different forms of taxation at the point of sale. A look at the differences between transaction privilege tax and sales tax.

Accentuating the positive

• Summing It Up (http://blog.freedmaxick.com/summing-it-up): Improvements in warehouse controls can go a long way in increasing efficiencies and adding value to clients’ manufacturing operations. Six tips to help them better warehouse management.
• Taxing Subjects (https://www.drakesoftware.com/blog): What to tell them about using the IRS withholding estimator.
• Current Federal Tax Developments (https://www.currentfederaltaxdevelopments.com/) The IRS recently explained why 1099Rs don’t specially report qualified charitable distributions.
• Solutions for CPA Firm Leaders (http://ritakeller.com/blog/): At annual partner retreats and just in general, remember to remember the good things that happened.
• Boyum & Barenscheer (https://myboyum.com/blog/): How and why to establish a policy that outlines your disclosure expectations and the requirements for employees to follow it.
• Palm Beach Accounting and Financial Services (https://www.pbafs.com/blog): A promotion at work or a lucrative investment puts more money in the pocket and ignites the desire to treat oneself. But where does the balance remain between spending and saving for the future? Guidelines to keep lifestyle inflation under control.

New to us

• Parametric (https://www.parametricportfolio.com/blog): From a firm that touts a “different way to look at the role public securities play in an investor’s portfolio” comes a fine blog on such recent topics as credit upgrades and corporate bond investors, ESG in fixed income and climate-risk disclosure. Welcome!
• Gordon Law Group (https://gordonlawltd.com/blog/): This Chicago law firm focuses on three practice areas: tax resolution, business/advertising law and cryptocurrency. Recent blog topics include IRS amnesty regarding offshore income and whether to opt out of the advanced payments of the CTC. Also welcome!