Blog

Tax News and Views R&D Credits Roundup

October 23, 2020

Sens. Young, Hassan introduce American Innovation and Jobs ActFort Wayne Business Weekly. “U.S. Sens. Todd Young (R-Ind.) and Maggie Hassan (D-N.H.), both members of the Senate Finance Committee, introduced the bipartisan American Innovation and Jobs Act to support research and development (R&D) investments by innovative small businesses and startups.”

The bipartisan American Innovation and Jobs Act supports innovative businesses and helps create jobs by:

  • Restoring incentives for long-term R&D investment by ensuring that companies can continue to fully deduct R&D expenses each year
  • Immediately doubling and then further raising the cap over time for the refundable R&D tax credit for small businesses and startups
  • Expanding eligibility for the refundable R&D tax credit so that more startups and new businesses can use it

Need help with you R&D credit? Contact our R&D Tax Incentives team today. 

 

Draft 2020 Form 1065 Instructions Contain Details of Tax Basis Partners' Capital Account Reporting Requirements – Ed Zollars, Current Federal Tax Developments. “The IRS has released a draft of the Form 1065 instructions for 2020 returns that contains the IRS’s proposed requirement for reporting partners’ capital on the K-1 on the tax basis.”

Per the news release:

“The revised instructions indicate that partnerships filing Form 1065 for tax year 2020 are to calculate partner capital accounts using the transactional approach for the tax basis method. Under the tax basis method outlined in the instructions, partnerships report partner contributions, the partner’s share of partnership net income or loss, withdrawals and distributions, and other increases or decreases using tax basis principles as opposed to reporting using other methods such as GAAP.”

IRS Makes Changes to Hot-Button Tax Capital Reporting Requirement – Eric Yauch, Tax Notes. “The IRS has changed course on the infamous tax basis capital reporting requirement, a move practitioners are largely grateful for.”

 

Democrats express concerns about IRS readiness for next year's filing season – Naomi Jagoda, The Hill. “ Top Democrats on the House Ways and Means Committee pressed the IRS about its readiness for next year's tax-filing season, given the many obstacles the IRS has faced this year as a result of the coronavirus pandemic.”

 

Trump’s Post-Election Plans for O-Zones? Bigger and Better – Jonathan Curry, Tax Notes($). “President Trump would push for more Opportunity Zones, more time for investors to invest in them, and more reporting requirements to better track the nascent program’s metrics in a second term, according to a White House adviser.”

Biden’s First-Time Homebuyer Tax Credit Is A Big Improvement Over The Mortgage Interest Deduction – C. Eugene Steuerle, TaxVox. “A tax credit for first-time homebuyers focuses on homeownership rather than the accumulation of mortgage debt. Such a credit would target subsidies to those who don’t yet own a home, including the young, who have struggled to build wealth. It also would benefit Blacks and Hispanics, who respectively have only one-eighth and one-fifth the average wealth of Whites.”

 

Unclaimed property distributions allowed as self-certified rollovers – Sally P. Schreiber, J.D., Journal of Accountancy. “In response to requests from stakeholders, the IRS issued guidance adding state unclaimed property fund distributions to the list of reasons that taxpayers may self-certify that they missed the 60-day deadline to roll over funds to a qualified retirement plan (Rev. Proc. 2020-46). It also added a requirement to report and withhold from these distributions.”

How Taxes Will Complicate Crypto Payments On PayPalShehan Chandrasekera, Forbes. “According to the PayPal press release published on Oct 21, 2020, users “will be able to instantly convert their selected cryptocurrency balance to fiat currency, with certainty of value and no incremental fees”. This means every time users convert their cryptocurrency into fiat to pay for goods and services via PayPal, that user will have a tax obligation.”

You will need to figure out your own taxes when determining any gain on the transaction. PayPal makes it very clear whose responsibility that is:

“It is your responsibility to determine what taxes, if any, apply to transactions you make using your Cryptocurrencies Hub. You can access your transaction history and account statements through your PayPal account for purposes of determining any required tax filings or payments”.

Oakland's notoriously aggressive turkey captured by wildlife expert posing as frail woman – Alix Martichoux, 7 ABC. “After five months of attacking unsuspecting Grand Lake residents, Gerald was captured Thursday and released onto wild land near Orinda. The solution to this months-long saga was quite similar to the problem that started it, when a wildlife capture expert posed as a frail, old woman to lure Gerald in.”

Oaklands Animal Services received multiple complaints on the turkey:

“His favorite target seems to be older women, although young children are also at great risk.”

“I swear I was getting flashbacks to the velociraptor scenes in 'Jurassic Park' as he was 'cooing' at me, sizing me up.”

Expand Full Article

We're Here to Help

We are here to help
From business growth to compliance and digital optimization, Eide Bailly is here to help you thrive and embrace opportunity.
Speak to our specialists