On Sep. 28, 2018, the IRS’s Offshore Voluntary Disclosure Program (OVDP) came to an end; however, offshore tax and reporting noncompliance persists in today’s increasingly global economy. Tax advisors are still helping clients who have been—or continue to be—noncompliant with their offshore tax and reporting obligations. This Q&A addresses some of the common issues that taxpayers and their advisors are dealing with in a post-OVDP world.

The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA) has dominated headlines since its passage in late 2017. More than two years later, the tax and accounting community are still trying to implement all of its changes, as final regulations are issued piecemeal for various IRC provisions modified by the TCJA. While much press coverage is given to clarifications of big-ticket items, such as qualified opportunity zones and the long-term effects of the TCJA as a whole, it is important to remain aware of the myriad smaller changes that were also enacted.

In 2019, Americans took an estimated 470 million domestic business trips, and spent more than $327 billion on business travel, which has increased year after year. In fact, global business travel is forecasted to increase by 6.9% in 2020. Surveys suggest that 85% of companies have employees who work outside their resident jurisdiction—and more employees are travelling away from their home business location than ever before.

On Dec. 20, 2019, President Trump signed into law the Further Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2020 (FCTA). Among its many provisions, the FCTA includes the Setting Every Community Up for Retirement Enhancement Act of 2019 (aka the SECURE Act). While most of these changes affect taxpayers’ IRAs and 401(k) accounts in a positive way, certain provisions tighten some rules. This discussion will review key provisions of the act and their impact on taxpayers.

On Dec. 19, 2019, the U.S. Department of Treasury and the IRS (collectively, the Treasury Department) released long-awaited final regulations on qualified opportunity funds (QOF). The final regulations come on the heels of two tranches of proposed regulations, which generated more than 300 comment letters from organizations and other interested parties. The NYSSCPA submitted a comment letter to the Treasury Department dated Jan. 9, 2019, that addressed a wide range of issues. In addition, the American College of Trust and Estate Counsel (ACTEC) submitted two separate comment letters to the Treasury Department on trust- and estate-related issues, the second of which was dated Jun. 27, 2019.

In addition to the plethora of New York State (NYS) taxes imposed on residents and businesses, New York City (NYC or city) has its own distinct set of business taxes, administered and collected by the NYC Department of Finance (DOF). The DOF collects more than $33.2 billion in revenue for the city and values more than 1 million properties with a total market value of $988 billion.