Home » 2010 (Page 5)
Yearly Archives: 2010
IRS Patrol: IRS Releases Draft W-2 Form for 2011; Announces Relief for Employers (Optional Reporting of the Cost of Health Coverage in 2011)
engraving of the US Treasury building in 1804
Stacie says: Doesn’t good news come in three’s? Well here is good news number two for the day – the IRS announced that it will defer the new requirement for employers to report the cost of coverage under an employer-sponsored group health plan. The reporting is now optional in 2011.
WASHINGTON — The IRS today issued a draft Form W-2 for 2011, which employers use to report wages and employee tax withholding. The IRS also announced that it will defer the new requirement for employers to report the cost of coverage under an employer-sponsored group health plan, making that reporting by employers optional in 2011.
The draft Form W-2 includes the codes that employers may use to report the cost of coverage under an employer-sponsored group health plan. The Treasury Department and the IRS have determined that this relief is necessary to provide employers the time they need to make changes to their payroll systems or procedures in preparation for compliance with the new reporting requirement. The IRS will be publishing guidance on the new requirement later this year.
Although reporting the cost of coverage will be optional with respect to 2011, the IRS continues to stress that the amounts reportable are not taxable. Included in the Affordable Care Act passed by Congress in March, the new reporting requirement is intended to be informational only, and to provide employees with greater transparency into overall health care costs.
Finally a Tax Law Change That Will Make Our Lives Easier. Well, unless you are a stock broker or mutual fund company that is. 1099-B Reporting Expanded
Mutual Fund
Stacie says: Good news for taxpayers who receive Forms 1099-B Broker and Barter Exchange Transactions. Starting in 2011, these forms will include the cost or other basis information of stock and mutual fund shares sold or exchanged during the year. I can’t tell you how happy this makes me. Countless hours are spent each year by preparers and taxpayers alike trying to find the basis information on stock sales. I have to say that this law change falls within one of my more favored.
WASHINGTON — The Internal Revenue Service today issued final regulations under a law change that will require reporting of basis and other information by stock brokers and mutual fund companies for most stock purchased in 2011 and all stock purchased in 2012 and later years. The reporting will be to investors and the IRS. This additional reporting will be optional for stock purchased prior to these dates.
“This important reporting change means investors will now receive the information they need to more easily and accurately report their gains and losses,” said IRS Commissioner Doug Shulman. “We will continue to work closely with stakeholder groups to ensure a smooth implementation of the new requirement, which reduces the recordkeeping and paperwork burden for millions of taxpayers.”
These regulations, posted today in the Federal Register, implement a provision in the Energy Improvement and Extension Act of 2008. Among other things, the regulations describe who is subject to this reporting requirement, which transactions are reportable and what information needs to be reported. Besides providing numerous examples, they also adopt a number of comments and suggestions received since the proposed regulations were issued last December.
Form 1099-B, Proceeds from Broker and Barter Exchange Transactions, long used to report sales prices, will be expanded in 2011 to include the cost or other basis of stock and mutual fund shares sold or exchanged during the year. Stock brokers and mutual fund companies will use this form to make these expanded year-end reports. The expanded form will also be used to report whether gain or loss realized on these transactions is long-term (held more than one year) or short-term (held one year or less), a key factor affecting the tax treatment of gain or loss. The expanded form, to be first used for calendar-year 2011 sales, must be filed with the IRS and furnished to investors in early 2012.
The IRS today also announced penalty relief for brokers and custodians for reporting certain transfers of stock in 2011.
The relief is described in Notice 2010-67, which was posted today on IRS.gov.
Related Articles
- Special investment taxes: mutual fund capital gains and ‘Flash Crash’ earnings (dontmesswithtaxes.typepad.com)
- Waiting…For Your Tax Forms? (turbotax.intuit.com)
- 5 Things You Don’t Know About 529 Plans (money.usnews.com)
- Cost Basis: Tracking Your Tax Basis (turbotax.intuit.com)
- What are all those W-2s and 1099s and 1098s? (turbotax.intuit.com)
- A Tax Cut Everyone Can Agree on (fool.com)
- Fund investors continue to favor bonds over stocks (seattletimes.nwsource.com)
- DTCC Enhances Mutual Fund Profile Service To Improve Integrity of Data for the Fund Industry (eon.businesswire.com)
- What is the Best Roth IRA Broker? (bargaineering.com)
- When Your Investment Losses Really Arenât (at Least in the Eyes of the IRS) (turbotax.intuit.com)
- IRS Won’t Defer Your “Flash Crash” Gains (blogs.forbes.com)
- 5 Things Your Broker Won’t Tell You (money.usnews.com)
Stacie's Tax Stuff 