In a surprise announcement that immediately triggered a burst of mostly positive reactions on social media, the U.S. Internal Revenue Service on Wednesday announced that it would be providing "broad-based penalty relief to most people and businesses who file certain 2019 and 2020 [tax] returns late," in an effort to "help struggling taxpayers affected by the Covid-19 pandemic". 

Friday's approval by the House of Representatives of the Inflation Reduction Act had been expected, but this was scant reassurance to many expatriate Americans who, after years of dealing with the taxation complexities that go with living abroad as a result of such laws as the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act, are wondering if the additional millions of fresh money that the act sets aside for the IRS will mean even more headaches for them. 

The Internal Revenue Service has issued a formal reminder to U.S. taxpayers around the world that their 2021 federal income tax returns are due "by Wednesday, June 15"...

A meeting to discuss possible ways of resolving the problem that thousands of so-called "accidental Americans" living in Europe have been having in keeping their EU bank accounts from being closed is scheduled to take place today between officials from the office of the EU Council president and representatives of the U.S. Internal Revenue Service.

In 2015, just as non-U.S. banks and financial services entities around the world began complying with the U.S. tax evasion prevention law known as FATCA – and in so doing, kicked off a tax-reporting nightmare for U.S. expats that continues – the U.S. Internal Revenue Service closed the last four of its overseas offices, citing an unavoidable need to cut costs... 

The U.S. Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration (TIGTA) this month has published two reports that consider differing aspects of the Internal Revenue Service's recent performance – and has arrived at many of the same conclusions that the National Taxpayer Advocate, Erin M. Collins, did, in her annual report to Congress back in January, on what the IRS needs to do to improve its efficacy. 

The IRS has formally reminded U.S. taxpayers not to ignore a virtual currency question at the top of the tax returns they're currently preparing to file, for the 2021 tax year.

As part of what it calls "a longer-term effort to improve" the services it provides to U.S. taxpayers, the IRS has unveiled "the first-ever Taxpayer Experience Office," and says it "will soon begin taking additional steps to expand" the offering.

Since the 2022 U.S. tax reporting season began in January, U.S. taxpayers at home and abroad have been repeatedly warned that this will not be an easy year for the IRS, which is starting off with a backlog of at least 10 million unprocessed tax returns from last year. 

In fact, National Taxpayer Advocate Erin M. Collins's annual report to Congress, published in January, was a disheartening litany of problems that continue to plague the IRS...

The U.S. and Malta have signed an agreement that will end the alleged mis-use of certain provisions in the existing U.S./Maltese income tax treaty by Americans seeking to avoid paying tax on income generated by pension schemes domiciled there, the Internal Revenue Service said this week.