Beginning the week of January 22, 2018 the IRS will begin certifying Seriously Delinquent Taxpayers (SDT) that owe more than $51,000 (amount adjusted for CPI annually) and the taxpayer is not working with the IRS to settle the debt with the IRS. Taxpayers will begin receiving the first round of CP508C notices around February 19 providing the taxpayer 90 days to cure. For information about the letters enter CP508C in the irs.gov search box.

The State Department will not allow SDTs to renew their passports and the State Department has the discretion to revoke passports. The IRS states there is little standard or guidance other than that from the State department and that they “may” revoke a passport for a certified SDT.

The answers to many questions are unknown such as (1) taxpayers that live outside USA what will happen regarding them, (2) will humanitarian considerations be given to taxpayers needing to leave the country, (3) taxpayers that their jobs require them to travel outside the USA will they get a waiver to travel plus many other questions.

For more information about this program enter passport cancellation in the irs.gov search box and this was the second option.

The new tax bill increases the standard deduction to $12,000 for individuals and $24,000 for married couples. As a result, some taxpayers may wish to accelerate their itemized deductions into 2017 because they will no longer be able to itemize in 2018.

In addition, in the future, grouping your deductions into one year and taking the itemized deduction and then taking the standard deduction the following year will be possible.

You should check with your tax advisor before doing anything because there are various other limitations, such as the alternative minimum tax, that need to be considered before doing this.

The IRS has announced that it will allow taxpayers to file their 2015 tax returns, even though they may not receive their Health Care information, and will not have to will file an amended return if there are discrepancies, as long as they rely on other reasonable sources. IRS Notice 2016–4 states “Nonetheless, some employees (and related individuals) who enrolled in coverage through the Marketplace but did not receive a determination from the Marketplace that the offer of employer-sponsored coverage was not affordable could be affected by the extension if they do not receive their Forms 1095-C before they file their income tax returns. As a result, for 2015 only, individuals who rely upon other information received from employers about their offers of coverage for purposes of determining eligibility for the premium tax credit when filing their income tax returns need not amend their returns once they receive their Forms 1095-C or any corrected Forms 1095-C. Individuals need not send this information to the Service when filing their returns but should keep it with their tax records.”

The basic information regarding Health Care Forms can be found at Questions and Answers about Health Care Information Forms for Individuals

Following up my previous post, the IRS has now sent out new letters telling everyone they had the wrong date on the previous letter, as I discussed. I wonder how much that cost in postage? Or are they just subsidizing the U S Postal Service?