The Treasury Department’s Office of Tax Policy and IRS use the Guidance Priority List each year to identify and prioritize the tax issues that should be addressed through regulations, revenue rulings, revenue procedures, notices, and other published administrative guidance. The Guidance Priority List focuses resources on guidance items that are most important to taxpayers and tax administration.
On February 7, the Internal Revenue Service released a second quarter update to its 2017–2018 priority guidance plan. The plan contains guidance projects the Internal Revenue Service hopes to complete during the period July 1, 2017 through June 30, 2018.
Originally including 198 guidance projects, the update adds 29 new projects to the plan. Of these, 18 have been designated as “near term priorities” as a result of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA), including:
- computational, definitional, and anti-avoidance guidance on the new Section 199A deduction for qualified business income (i.e., the “pass-through deduction”;
- rules relating to the new Section 45S employer credit for paid family and medical leave;
- computational, definitional, and other guidance on the business interest limitation under IRC Sec. 163(j) ; and
- guidance on adopting new small business accounting method changes.
The Internal Revenue Service is expected to update this list further during the year as it considers comments from taxpayers and tax practitioners.
Questions and comments can be sent to Bob Grossman or Don Johnston.
