Remain vigilant against evolving scams; missing pre-filing registration numbers; employer educational assistance programs; and more

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e-News for Tax Professionals August 30, 2024

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Issue Number:  2024-35

Inside This Issue

* Tax Pros: Remain vigilant against evolving scams [ #First ]
* Where’s my registration number? [ #Second ]
* Employer educational assistance programs may be utilized to help workers repay student loans through Dec. 31, 2025 [ #Third ]
* Tax relief available for disaster victims in Puerto Rico, South Dakota and U.S. Virgin Islands [ #Fourth ]
* Qualifying Advanced Energy Project Tax Credit applications are open [ #Fifth ]
* Upcoming webinar for tax practitioners [ #Sixth ]
* News from the Justice Department’s Tax Division [ #Seventh ]
* Technical Guidance [ #Eighth ]
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*1.  Tax Pros: Remain vigilant against evolving scams*

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In the eighth and final installment of this summer’s “Protect Your Clients; Protect Yourself [ [link removed] ]” security series, the IRS and its Security Summit partners advise tax professionals to maintain stringent safety measures to safeguard against ever-changing data security vulnerabilities.

“Tax professionals remain a tempting target for identity thieves and cybercriminals,” said IRS Commissioner Danny Werfel. “They face countless attacks from those hoping to harvest valuable personal and financial information that can be used to file an authentic-looking tax return and slip through the tax system’s defenses. By taking some basic steps, tax professionals at firms both large and small can protect their clients and protect themselves from these relentless security threats.”

Visit the Data Theft information for tax professionals webpage [ [link removed] ] to learn more.

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*2.  Where’s my registration number?*

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Tax pros: We want to hear from you if you submitted a pre-filing registration package and


* The extended due date for your annual tax return is approaching (60 days or less); and
* You submitted your registration package more than 90 days ago and the status of your registration package has not changed within the last 30 days

Contact the IRS by email at  [email protected] with the following information:


* Subject line: Where's My Registration?
* Name, last four digits of EIN and address of the registering entity
* Date the registration package was submitted (or an estimate if you aren’t sure of the exact date), and
* Name and telephone number for a contact person (if we need to talk to you about your submission)

Note: The contact person must be authorized to receive private taxpayer information about the registering entity (e.g., be an officer, trustee, or representative (IRS Form 2848, Power of Attorney) of the registering entity.

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*3.  Employer educational assistance programs may be utilized to help workers repay student loans through Dec. 31, 2025*

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Employees can use their employer-sponsored educational assistance programs [ [link removed] ] to help pay off student loan debt through Dec. 31, 2025. Historically, educational assistance programs have covered the employee’s tuition, books and other educational costs. Principal and interest on an employee-qualified education loans are now also payable through these programs. Payments made directly to the lender, as well as those made to the employee, may qualify.

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*4.  Tax relief available for disaster victims in Puerto Rico, South Dakota and U.S. Virgin Islands*

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Disaster-area taxpayers in Puerto Rico [ [link removed] ], South Dakota [ [link removed] ] and the U.S. Virgin Islands [ [link removed] ] now have until Feb. 3 to file various federal individual and business tax returns and make required payments. The IRS is offering relief to any area designated by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) [ [link removed] ], and the same relief will be available to any other counties added later to the disaster areas. The current list of eligible localities is always available on the Tax relief in disaster situations [ [link removed] ] page on IRS.gov.

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*5.  Qualifying Advanced Energy Project Tax Credit applications are open*

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The Department of Treasury, IRS and U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) announced the opening of full applications for the second round of the Qualifying Advanced Energy Project Tax Credit (48C) Program [ [link removed] ] after receiving hundreds of project proposal letters in search of the credits. After review, the agency encouraged more than 450 of the projects to continue with the evaluation process. Those applicants are encouraged to apply for the next stage of evaluation to determine which projects will receive a tax credit. Applications are due Oct. 18. Applicants should use the application templates available on the 48C Portal.

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*6.  Upcoming webinar for tax practitioners*

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The IRS offers the upcoming live webinar to the tax practitioner community:


* *U.S. taxation of stock-based compensation received by nonresident aliens* on Oct. 3, at 2 p.m. ET. Earn up to one continuing education credit (Federal Tax). Certificates of completion are being offered.

For more information or to register, visit Webinars for tax practitioners webpage [ [link removed] ].

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*7.  News from the Justice Department’s Tax Division*

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The U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Ohio filed a civil injunction suit against Emmanuel Antwi [ [link removed] ], a Cincinnati tax preparation business owner. The civil complaint alleges that Antwi filed hundreds of tax returns every filing season since 2020, at least 95 percent of which he prepared with the intention of claiming a refund. It is purported that he intentionally took irrational or false stances on returns he filed, understating the amount of taxes his customers owed and inflating the refunds they were due. The court ordered Antwi to send notice of the injunction to each person for whom he or his businesses prepared federal tax returns, amended tax returns or claims for refund between Jan. 1, 2019, to the present.

The U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida, filed a civil injunction suit to permanently bar Richard Louis [ [link removed] ] from preparing federal income tax returns for others. The complaint alleged that Louis prepared returns for customers that claimed various fraudulent deductions and credits, exaggerated itemized deductions and inflated business expenses. The court ordered Louis to disgorge $390,000 in ill-gotten gains he received from his return preparation business. Louis agreed to both the injunction and ordered disgorgement.

A federal grand jury in North Carolina returned an indictment charging Jerome Osuamadi Nwabueze [ [link removed] ], a tax preparation business owner, with 27 counts of preparing and filing false tax returns and obstructing the IRS. The complaint alleges Nwabueze inflated tax refunds, claimed fraudulent tax deductions and fictitious business profits and losses from 2018 through 2022 for his clients and himself. If convicted, Nwabueze faces a maximum penalty of three years in prison for each false tax return charge and three years in prison for the obstruction charge.

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*8.  Technical Guidance*

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Revenue Procedure 2024-34 [ [link removed] ] modifies section 7 of Rev. Proc. 2024-23, 2024-23 I.R.B. 1334, to modify the procedures under section 446 of the Internal Revenue Code and section 1.446-1(e) of the Income Tax Regulations for obtaining automatic consent of the Commissioner to change methods of accounting for research or experimental expenditures paid or incurred in taxable years beginning after Dec. 31, 2021.

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