WASHINGTON — The Internal Revenue Service today reminded tax professionals that they can earn continuing professional education credits online through seminars filmed at the 2014 IRS Nationwide Tax Forums.

The 14 self-study seminars are now available on the IRS Nationwide Tax Forums Online  (NTFO). Self-study seminars provide information to students using interactive videos, PowerPoint slides and transcripts.

The 2014 online forum seminars cover many topics of interest to tax professionals including:

• Highlights of 2014 income tax law changes,
• Overview of the premium tax credit and the individual shared responsibility provision,
• Updates to and overview of Treasury Circular No. 230, and
• Improvements to the process for securing an Individual Taxpayer Identification Number.

The online forums are registered with the IRS Return Preparer Office and the National Association of State Boards of Accountancy (NASBA) as a qualified sponsor of continuing professional education (CPE). For a fee, Enrolled Agents and CPAs taking NTFO seminars can earn CPE credits. To earn CPE credits, users must create an account, answer review questions throughout the seminar, and pass short tests at the end of the seminars.

The online forum seminars can also be audited for free. Users who choose to audit seminars will not have access to the review questions or final examination and will not receive credit for the seminar.

In addition to the recently-added seminars, NTFO also offers many seminars from prior-year IRS Nationwide Tax Forums.

WASHINGTON — Farmers and ranchers who previously were forced to sell livestock due to drought, like the drought currently affecting much of the nation, have an extended period of time in which to replace the livestock and defer tax on any gains from the forced sales, the Internal Revenue Service announced today.

Farmers and ranchers who, due to drought, sell more livestock than they normally would may defer tax on the extra gains from those sales. To qualify, the livestock generally must be replaced within a four-year period. The IRS is authorized to extend this period if the drought continues.

The one-year extension of the replacement period announced today generally applies to capital gains realized by eligible farmers and ranchers on sales of livestock held for draft, dairy or breeding purposes due to drought. Sales of other livestock, such as those raised for slaughter or held for sporting purposes, and poultry are not eligible.

The IRS is providing this relief to any farm located in a county, parish, city, borough, census area or district, listed as suffering exceptional, extreme or severe drought conditions by the National Drought Mitigation Center (NDMC), during any weekly period between Sept. 1, 2013, and Aug. 31, 2014. All or part of 30 states are listed. Any county contiguous to a county listed by the NDMC also qualifies for this relief.

As a result, farmers and ranchers in these areas whose drought sale replacement period was scheduled to expire at the end of this tax year, Dec. 31, 2014, in most cases, will now have until the end of their next tax year. Because the normal drought sale replacement period is four years, this extension immediately impacts drought sales that occurred during 2010. But because of previous drought-related extensions affecting some of these localities, the replacement periods for some drought sales before 2010 are also affected. Additional extensions will be granted if severe drought conditions persist.

Details on this relief, including a list of NDMC-designated counties, are available in Notice 2014-60, posted today on IRS.gov. Details on reporting drought sales and other farm-related tax issues can be found in Publication 225, Farmer’s Tax Guide, also available on the IRS website.