Math Mistakes, Surprise Visits, Pot Revenues, And Tax Cut Consequences
Mistakes happen when filing taxes; IRS math error authority can help. TPC’s Margot Crandall-Hollick shows how the IRS can help correct some mistakes on returns using its “math error authority.” She highlights efforts to improve how the IRS communicates those corrections to taxpayers. Communications improvements can help, but Margot cautions that “Congress should heed the advice of the National Taxpayer Advocate and be judicious in expanding IRS math error authority or risk further burdening taxpayers.”
Update requested on TIGTA investigation of IRS employee conduct during unannounced taxpayer visits. In July 2023, IRS revenue agents stopped making unannounced visits to taxpayers to collect tax debts following pressure from Congressional Republicans. House Judiciary Chair Jim Jordan (R-OH) wants an update from the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration (TIGTA) on instances in which IRS employees apparently backdated penalty approval forms filed with the Tax Court to appear as if they were meeting deadlines, reports TaxNotes (paywall). The Tax Court subsequently sanctioned the IRS for acting in bad faith.
Report: State coffers burst with marijuana tax revenue. Lending Tree, using US Census Bureau data from 2022 to 2023, reports the total revenue from cannabis taxes in 2023 was $2.86 billion. Of all the states with legal cannabis sales, California brought in the most marijuana tax revenue in 2023, collecting $567.35 million. Missouri’s collections grew the most to $67.36 million, a 355.5 percent increase from 2022, followed by New York, which was 184 percent more than a year prior.
Speaking of revenue collections. Ohio’s Republican Gov. Mike DeWine said he thinks his state’s revenue collections have come in below projections for four of the past five months because of tax cuts adopted by the state. He hasn’t proposed income tax cuts in his past three budgets, but the Republican-led state legislature passed $3.1 billion in tax cuts in the budget that took effect last July.
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