Filing Season Starts Today, January 20. Are you ready? 

The IRS has a variety of online tools to assist you this filing season. Visit Basic Tools for Tax Professionals for information you need to file returns for your clients and e-Services for Tax Pros, a suite of web-based tools that allow you to complete certain transactions online. ACA is a hot topic this year, so bookmark the ACA Information Center for Tax Professionals page. And if you have questions about FATCA, take a look at the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act page. 

Resources on IRS.gov for Handling Estates, Bankruptcies. 

IRS.gov has resources that can help tax professionals manage estate and bankruptcy issues. For more information, including links to forms and publications, see Bankruptcy and Deceased Taxpayers – Probate, Filing Estate and Individual Returns, Paying Taxes Due. 

Technical Guidance. 

• Notice 2015-02 provides guidance with respect to issues related to the retroactive increase in the monthly transit benefit exclusion under section 132(f)(2)(A) of the Internal Revenue Code from $130 per participating employee to $250 per participating employee for the period from Jan. 1, 2014 through Dec. 31, 2014.  Due to the timing of the statutory change and in order to reduce administrative burden, the IRS is providing a special administrative procedure for employers that treated excess transit benefits as wages and that have not yet filed their fourth quarter Form 941 for 2014 to make necessary corrections on their fourth quarter Form 941.
• Announcement 2015-03 provides guidance on the automatic approval of a change in funding method for a single-employer defined benefit plan under certain circumstances in which the change in method results from a change in the plan’s enrolled actuary. 

Source:  Internal Revenue Service eNews for Professionals #2015-1.