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On February 12th the National Taxpayer Advocate issued a report with enormous implications for accounts payable professionals seeking help with their 1099/1042-S filing/compliance related questions.

The Washington Post reported on January 26th that the IRS will not be just bouncing back to normal now that the shutdown is over. The National Taxpayer Advocate has informed Congress that it could take as long as an entire year to return to normal operations - including providing tax support answers for your 1099/1042-S related information reporting questions. And that's an optimistic take on the mess.

The shutdown has crippled IRS support services. If you have 1099/1042-S filing questions you need to figure out the answers on your own, or find a trusted advisor. The latest news reports are showing that IRS employees called back to work are not showing up and this is further hurting the paltry service levels ostensibly available for tax support.

Last week the Internal Revenue Service Advisory Council (IRSAC) issued its annual report for 2018. Among its findings regarding the state of the IRS is the state of enforcement. In fact, accounts payable departments need to be careful going into 2019.

That's because, beetween 2010 and 2018 the percentage of the IRS budget going strictly toward enforcement has been on average each year as high as 40 percent! Moreover, very large organizations (we are talking organizations with billions of dollars per year in revenue) are being audited at a 58 percent rate.

The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act passed late in 2017 made enormous changes to many long-standing 1099/W-2 reporting situations. This includes new information reporting requirements for certain life insurance contracts.

This Monday (April 30th) the California Supreme Court issued a ruling that will require companies generating revenue in California to reevaluate how they classify their payees; or face steep fines for non-compliance.

You have questions. Maybe it's about which box to report a Form 1099-MISC payment or whether a payment is Form 1042-S reportable. You call the IRS and can't get an answer. According to a recent report issued by the National Taxpayer Advocate this is the new normal.

With all of the new changes in W-2/1099 reporting and compliance, please be careful. For instance, another one that has slipped under the radar of many is the new backup withholding rate.

The IRS National Taxpayer Advocate released it's mid-year report to Congress. If you are in Accounts Payable or Tax it is not a pretty picture. This upcoming filing season could be the most brutal yet.

Hopefully your accounts payable department is adequately staffed and trained. That's because the "gig" or "1099" economy continues to grow - along with a myriad of compliance and reporting responsibilities.

A recent  Deloitte survey finds that: