First Thursday Minutes – December 5, 2019

Stakeholder Liaisons
Doug Blade
Karen Brehmer
Neki Cox
Kathleen Fox

Stakeholder Liaison Manager
Kristen Hoiby, Area 6 manager

Departments of Revenue
MO       Laura Wallendorf
NE        Dawn Holtmeier

Tax Professionals
Rita Barnard
Darrel Beadle
Velma Bjorgum
Jacob Borash
Frank Carnahan
Brad J Decker
Kelly Golish
Jacen Gondringer
Doug Gross
Steven Heeley
Cindy Hockenberry
Terry Johnson
Bill Kelly
Rick Kollauf
Ken Larsen
Judy Lashinski
Terri Lillesand
Laura Merschman
Ruth Ann Michnay
Holly Muehl-Pett
Paul Osterberg
Jodee Paape
Kathy Reiniger
JoAnn Schoen
Barbara A Steponkus
Brad Voght
Jill Wrensch

Webinars

No webinars scheduled at this time. Please check Webinars for Tax Practitioners for upcoming webinars.

Discussion items
 
1)   2019 Form 1040 and schedules

2019 Form 1040. There are three schedules for 2019, compared to six in 2018.

2)   Virtual Currency

3)   Discussion: Form W-4 for 2020, federal and state rules

NEBRASKA:

For 2020, if an employee changes withholding, they must use the new IRS Form W-4.  In Nebraska, the employee MUST ALSO fill out a new W-4 for the state of NE.

MINNESOTA:

Mark Krause provided this information: Beginning January 1, 2020 when a new employee fills out a W-4 or an existing employee changes their W-4, a new 2020 W-4MN will need to be completed since withholding allowances will no longer be calculated on the federal W-4. The rules for submitting a W-4MN to Revenue have not changed.

WISCONSIN: Changes to Form WT-4

  • The Internal Revenue Service has redesigned Form W-4 for the year 2020. As explained in the DRAFT posted on the IRS website, federal allowances have been removed. Prior to this change, an employee could use Form W-4 for Wisconsin purposes if the employee’s federal allowances equaled his or her Wisconsin exemptions. Since federal allowances have been removed, the redesigned Form W-4 cannot be used for Wisconsin purposes.
  • The following applies for Wisconsin withholding tax purposes beginning in 2020:
    • All newly-hired employees must provide Form WT-4 to their employer.
    • Existing employees that change the number of their Wisconsin withholding exemptions must provide Form WT-4 to their employer.
    • Existing employees are not required to provide Form WT-4 to their employer (unless the employer requests it) if the employee wishes to maintain the same number of Wisconsin withholding exemptions used in 2019.

MISSOURI:

Laura Wallendorf will look into this issue.

4)   National Tax Security Awareness Week

  • IR-2019-192, National Tax Security Awareness Week begins; IRS and Security Summit partner offer Cyber Monday shopping tips to protect computers, mobile phones
  • IR-2019-195, National Tax Security Awareness Week, Day 2: Don’t take the bait: Recognize, avoid phishing scams from identity thieves
  • IR-2019-196, National Tax Security Awareness Week, Day 3: Creating strong passwords can protect taxpayers from identity theft
  • IR-2019-198, National Tax Security Awareness Week, Day 4: IRS, Security Summit warns business owners about being targets for identity thieves
  • IR-2019-200, National Tax Security Awareness Week, Day 5: Tax professionals need data protection plans; must guard against identity theft

5)   IRS reminds tax professionals of tasks to get ready for 2020

  • Update e-Services information
  • Renew PTINs
  • Update POA/third-party authorization records
  • Review security safeguards
  • Review Practitioner Priority Service options
  • Register for e-News for Tax Professionals and subscribe for quick alerts

State Departments of Revenue

 Minnesota – Mark Krause

  • Each day we are mailing approximately 3,000 tax year 2017 conformity-related adjustment letters. Our goal is to be completed with 2017 adjustments by the end of this year.
  • Any questions can be directed to outreach@state.mn.us.

Your issues and questions:

1) Taxpayer First Act

 There are three issues that commonly come up and have been an issue for many years. Please use the Taxpayer First Act email to share these concerns with the IRS.

1) Letters or payments “cross in the mail”. Example: The taxpayer pays a balance due on Form 1040 by check or by Electronic Funds Withdrawal on 10-15-2019.  The taxpayer gets a balance due notice in early November. The IRS system does not show the payment.

2) The taxpayer gets a paper refund check as a result of an adjustment after their return has been processed. They already received the original refund as shown on the return, or they paid the balance due.  Or they get a refund check that is different from what they were expecting. The taxpayer is supposed to get a letter to explain the refund. Sometimes they get a letter up to three weeks after the refund check, or they don’t get a letter at all.

3) Form 2848’s are not processed by the CAF unit in one week, as the IRS states. It often takes three weeks. Sometimes they are not processed at all, and often there is no correspondence to the taxpayer to explain if there was a problem.  POAs can’t wait three weeks to contact the IRS, so they call PPS and fax in Form 2848. This works, but it would be better to have an electronic system for submitting Form 2848 where it’s recorded in day or two.

Next Call

The next call will be on January 2, 2020.
We’ll send out the WebEx link closer to that date
Meetings are one hour long. Come when you can, leave when you must.
Thank you to everyone who attended. We appreciate your time and input!