In an important decision, the South Carolina Administrative Law Court (ALC) recently ruled that a bartending service was not liable for sales tax on separately-stated service charges. See A Southern Bartender v. South Carolina Department of Revenue, Docket No. 17-ALJ-17-0002-CC (April 26, 2018). The business provided several bartending service packages. Customers could choose to pay a flat price for both alcohol and bartending services together, but could also select to pay for the alcohol and bartending services separately and where the alcohol and bartending services were ...
Qualified Opportunity Zones were included as part of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act which became law in December 2017. The zones were originally introduced as the Investing in Opportunity Act sponsored by South Carolina Senator Tim Scott and are meant to encourage investment in economically distressed communities.
Opportunity Zones have generated a lot of interest and even more questions. This alert attempts to answer the most frequently asked questions we are hearing from clients.
- What is the opportunity?
The opportunity is for investors with long-term capital gains to defer paying ...
On April 23, 2018, the U.S. Department of Labor (the "DOL") released Field Assistance Bulletin No. 2018-01 ("FAB 2018-01") which provides guidance regarding (1) the exercise of shareholder rights and written statements of investment policy (addressed in Interpretation Bulletin 2016-01); and (2) economically targeted investments ("ETIs"; addressed in Interpretation Bulletin 2015-01). I have previously discussed certain issues arising with respect to the exercise of shareholder rights. See my article "DOL Updates Guidance on Proxy Voting by Plan Fiduciaries", January 19 ...
Taxpayers who disagree with a proposed tax assessment issued by the South Carolina Department of Revenue (SCDOR or DOR) may or may not be able reach an agreement at the administrative level. When taxpayers and SCDOR cannot resolve a proposed tax assessment at the administrative level, DOR will issue a Department Determination. A taxpayer can then seek judicial review of the Department Determination by filing a request for a contested case hearing with the South Carolina Administrative Law Court (ALC) within 30 days of the issuance of the Department Determination. This is the only ...
On April 11, 2018, the South Carolina House of Representatives passed House Bill 3684, which will allow the South Carolina Department of Revenue (SCDOR or DOR) to centralize state tax lien filings. State tax lien filings are currently filed with local county recording offices throughout the state. The new bill, if adopted by the South Carolina General Assembly, would simplify the state tax lien filing process by implementing a centralized system of filing and indexing tax liens, and which would also accessible to the public online through the Internet. State tax liens would no longer ...
The IRS recently announced that, beginning this month, the tax agency will be assigning certain unpaid tax accounts to private collection agencies. The IRS will retain and continue to collect most unpaid taxes. The IRS has identified certain tax accounts, however, that it will assign over to these newly-designed private collection firms for collection. The accounts to be assigned to the private collection firms involve taxpayers who have not paid their taxes for many years and who should be well-aware of their unpaid taxes.
The private collection firms will be authorized to contact ...
Section 403(b) of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986, as amended (the "Code") authorizes a type of retirement plan that can be sponsored by certain tax exempt organizations (e.g., a Code Section 501(c)(3) organization, including a church), certain educational organizations (as described in Code Section 170(b)(1)(a)(ii), including colleges), and certain state or local governmental organizations. In many cases, a 403(b) plan's assets are held in either annuity contracts or custodial accounts (with participant direction of the investments) which may limit the plan sponsor's ...
The IRS recently announced it will be shutting down its successful Offshore Voluntary Disclosure Program (OVDP) for unreported foreign bank accounts and income. The program will end September 28, 2018. Under the OVDP, first started in 2009, over 50,000 individuals have come forward to report previously unreported foreign bank accounts and income. The IRS reports it has raised over $11 billion in taxes, penalties and interest through the OVDP.
The U.S. income tax system is perhaps the most expansive in the world. U.S. citizens and permanent residents must report their worldwide ...
The IRS requires businesses to obtain a Form W-4 from each employee, and also a Form W-9 from contractors and others who may receive payments for services. If a business does not receive these forms, the business must deduct and withhold “back-up withholding” from all wage and other payments to these individuals equal to 24% of the payments (down from 28% prior to 2018). Amounts withheld from an employee/contractor’s payments as back-up withholding are reported on Forms W-2/Form 1099 by the business, and should be reported as federal income tax withheld on the ...
UPDATE: In Notice 2018-18, published March 1, 2018, the IRS announced its intention to issue regulations clarifying that S corporations will be subject to the extended carried interest holding period.
Prior to the passage of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (the "Act"), one of the more controversial and hotly-debated tax benefits was the so-called "carried interest," which allowed certain fund managers and venture capital firms to pay income taxes on what would typically be considered ordinary income at favored long-term capital gains rates. Both Presidential candidates took aim at the ...