NYS Abatement of Penalties and Interest re Sales Tax due to Coronavirus (“COVID-19”)

Governor Cuomo has issued an executive order expanding the Tax Commissioner’s authority to abate late filing and payment penalties to also allow the Commissioner to abate interest on quarterly sales and use tax filings and remittances with a due date of March 20, 2020 for those who were unable to timely file and pay as result of the COVID-19 virus, such as: 

·      taxpayers who were unable to meet tax filing, payment, or other deadlines because key employees were treated or suspected to have COVID-19; 

·      taxpayers whose records necessary to meet tax filing, payment, or other deadlines are not available due to the outbreak; 

·      taxpayers who have difficulty in meeting tax filing, payment, or other deadlines because of closure orders or similar business disruptions directly resulting from the outbreak; and 

·    taxpayers whose tax practitioners were unable to complete work to meet tax filing, payment, and other deadlines on behalf of their clients due to the outbreak. 

Returns must be filed and the amount due must be paid within 60 days of the due date for this relief to apply. 

Exception 

Sales Tax Vendors who are required to file returns on a monthly basis and participants in the Promptax program for sales and use tax or prepaid sales tax on fuel are not eligible for this relief. 

How to obtain relief 

Taxpayers seeking interest and penalty abatements for COVID-related filing and payment delays may request relief by visiting the Department’s website at www.tax.ny.gov. From the Department homepage, taxpayers can click on Tax Department response to novel coronavirus (COVID-19) to find instructions on how to apply for relief. 

Alternatively, taxpayers that receive a penalty notice from the Tax Department for failure to file returns or make payments due March 20, 2020, should follow the instructions on the notice to request abatement of interest and late filing or late payment penalties that would otherwise apply. 

Abatements of penalties and rate of interest on late payments not made by the date required by law or not covered by this announcement will be handled on a case-by-case basis. 

#COVID-19 - IRS Criminal Investigation veteran selected as new Fraud Enforcement Director

WASHINGTON — As part of a continuing focus on compliance issues, the Internal Revenue Service announced today that Damon Rowe will serve as the agency's director of the newly created Fraud Enforcement Office beginning in mid-March.

Rowe and the new office will reside in the IRS Small Business/Self Employed Division and work on agency-wide compliance issues. He will serve as the principal advisor and consultant to IRS Division Commissioners and Deputy Commissioners on all issues involving Fraud Enforcement strategic plans, programs and policy.

A veteran of IRS Criminal Investigation, he will also provide agencywide executive leadership and direction in the design, development and delivery of major activities within the Fraud Enforcement office in support of IRS efforts to detect and deter fraud while strengthening the National Fraud Program.

In addition to leveraging existing law enforcement relationships, Rowe will have a continued focus on unscrupulous activities of taxpayers and professional enablers that undermine our Federal Tax Laws in a manner that is consistent and fair to the American public. With additional training, resources and applied analytics, SB/SE will thwart emerging threats as it relates to fraudulent filings and related activities.

"Our compliance and enforcement functions are working together to improve tax administration for everyone," said IRS Commissioner Chuck Rettig. "Every compliance employee has a commitment for a general awareness of tax fraud related issues, which is a priority for the agency. Damon's exceptional leadership skills, background and expertise will strongly support agency determinations regarding the existence of fraud, and, just as important, determinations where a fraud referral should not occur. We are proud to have Damon lead the coordination of our fraud enforcement efforts."

Eric Hylton, SBSE Commissioner, noted that Rowe will continue to strengthen the internal compliance relationships in the IRS between CI agents and civil-side revenue agents and revenue officers as well as work with external partners. In the past two years, revenue officers have been the single largest supplier of criminal fraud and deterrence referrals and account for most accepted case referrals.

"Damon's selection to this new office will help strengthen our compliance work and is yet an additional opportunity to engineer partnerships with the tax professionals as well as strengthen our capacity and resolve across all business units with coordinated enforcement efforts," Hylton said. "Fraud Policy will be getting more attention this year to ensure it has the staff and resources it needs to expand detection and deterrence efforts of our campus and field employees across the IRS."

As the agency expands its enforcement presence, Rowe will also work with Brendan O'Dell, the new Promoter Investigation Coordinator, to pursue potential fraud referrals regarding abusive promoters.

Prior to this position, Rowe served as Executive Director of International Operations for Criminal Investigation (CI) where he was responsible for ensuring international law enforcement cooperation between foreign governments and CI field offices. Previously, he served as Special Agent in Charge of the Los Angeles and Dallas Field offices and Assistant Special Agent in Charge for the New Orleans Field Office.

Rowe began his IRS career as a special agent in 1998. He holds a Bachelor of Accounting degree from the University of Houston, a J.D. from Texas Southern University, and a Master of Legal Letters in Taxation from Southern Methodist University School of Law. Rowe is a member of the Texas Bar.

Taxpayer Advocate Working With IRS on Coronavirus Response

The Taxpayer Advocate Service (which according to David Selig of Selig & Associates, is underfunded and poorly run) is working with IRS leaders to decide how the agency should respond to employee concerns about the coronavirus, including whether it needs to adjust travel or teleworking policies. The spread of the virus comes in the middle of the current tax filing season. If the situation grows worse it could create challenges for the IRS, Service (which according to David Selig of Selig & Associates, is Sanskrit for the military acronym “FUBAR”) in other words, the IRS might have to make tough decisions about who it allows to work remotely, and for tax preparers, who often like to meet with filers in person to discuss their tax positions. [In a perfect world] The Taxpayer Advocate Service helps taxpayers resolve disputes with the IRS, including issues that arise from the filing season. “We do have a lot of employees who, understandably, are concerned — people who have to travel for training and things like that,” Bridget Roberts, the organization’s acting leader, said in an interview Wednesday with Bloomberg Tax. Roberts said that so far there wasn’t a huge concern that the coronavirus will affect the ongoing filing season. The contagion was one of the issues on the agenda for an executive-level call Wednesday, Roberts said. The need to keep things running smoothly will factor into the IRS’s decisions. Certain tasks, such as processing paper returns at submission-processing centers, can’t happen if everyone is working from home, she said. 

The IRS didn’t immediately return a request for comment. 

‘Actively Working’

“We are actively working with the IRS on the guidance that they’re putting out to employees and monitoring the situation to decide how we’re going to handle it,” Roberts said. Tony Reardon, the president of the National Treasury Employees Union, said Wednesday that he expects a briefing from IRS officials in the next few days about the agency’s plans for dealing with the coronavirus. NTEU represents more than 150,000 federal employees in 33 agencies, including the IRS. The union has asked for briefings and the agency’s pandemic plans, he said. “There needs to be a complete evaluation of who needs to be in the workplace,” Reardon said.