tax professionals have a special duty to help.
by rick telberg
卡塔尔世界杯常规比赛时间
“thank you for your service” isn’t enough.
special report – fixing the irs: irs #fails at online services spell problems for professionals | tax accountants fill the breach of a failing irs | beware the ez way out | can the irs improve its phone service? | when clients face ‘unreal’ irs audits | irs warns about private debt collectors for tax season 2018 | underfunded irs swamped with problems | irs in retreat from communities | military personnel face new battles at home: the irs | as new economy surges, irs falls further behind | is the irs winning the battle against identity theft? | irs mulls raising fees to cover budget shortfalls |
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active duty service members have plenty to worry about. in addition to the mres, ieds, and rpgs, there’s the irs. like all american workers, military personnel, including those in combat zones, have to pay taxes, but calculating what they owe can be as complicated as patrolling the streets of mosul. a good tax preparer might be able to help these 2.1 million active duty, reserve, and national guard, but it takes a little extra training.
these aren’t your average taxpayers.
military personnel in combat zones and qualified hazardous duty areas get a little break on their due date. they don’t have to file until 180 days after they leave the combat zone. (even that deadline is easier said than calculated.) if they get home leave, they might be able to see a tax professional.
special challenges
but is 180 days enough? the rules for military personnel are specialized and a bit complicated, and it’s hard to get help overseas. according to the tax advocacy service, service members face several special challenges, and so do tax practitioners who want to help them.
- the military has few qualified tax lawyers to help personnel.
- information on the irs website is erroneous, out-of-date, and insufficient.
- the irs stakeholder partnership, education, and communication (spec) division does not have a special unit for military matters.
- spec lacks the funding needed to travel overseas to train volunteer income tax assistance (vita) volunteers.
- overseas personnel can’t call the irs toll-free line.
- even if they could call it, odds are, no one would answer.
- and if someone did answer, they might well be ignorant of military issues.
here are some of the special tax calculation challenges taxpayers in uniform face:
- the filing extension
- treatment of income earned in a combat zone
- combat income and ira contributions.
- tax abatement in case of death.
- a spouse signing a tax return
- capital gains exclusions
- relocation expenses
- uniform expenses
- early ira withdrawals.
- eitc considering allowances for housing and subsistence.
- severance pay for wounded vets
who’s got their backs?
spec, which manages the vita program, lacks funding and support for the volunteer assistance program. training for vita volunteers is increasingly done only by virtual classroom, not live instructors. trained volunteers who happen to live near overseas bases are rare. so are military tax lawyers. some military bases have to bring in u.s.-based attorneys to help.
with few tax professionals to turn to, service members depend on the irs.gov website. but the tas says the site is inadequate and misleading.
- the reference to the “veterans and sailors civil relief act of 1940” is all goofed up. the word “veterans” does not appear in the act, and it does not apply to veterans. the act was modernized in 2003 by the servicemembers civil relief act.
- the tax abatement for $12,000 “death gratuity” should be $100,000.
- the ‘“miscellaneous provisions—combat zone service” link hasn’t been updated since 2007.
- while the irs.gov has video and audio presentations for small businesses, individuals, and tax professionals, there are none on military-specific issues.
the tas suggests that it shouldn’t be all that difficult to establish a toll-free telephone line from overseas bases to the irs. but even that might not help much.
“even if service members stationed abroad were some of the lucky 40 percent who got through to the irs,” the tas says, “they cannot be confident the irs employees on the other end of the line understand their issue.”
the tas also notes that although overseas service personnel can file until june 15, the irs does not answer any tax law questions outside of the january 1 to april 15 tax season. for overseas personnel, tax season is half a year longer than that.
the tas has made four recommendations to the irs that would alleviate many of the above problems. whether congress will move on those recommendations before april 15 or even june 15 or even the end of various wars, is, to say the least dubious. meanwhile, 卡塔尔世界杯常规比赛时间 would like to suggest that tax practitioners would be doing themselves and their country a favor if they can train themselves in the military income tax rules and offer service to those who offer service.