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The IRS has announced that, under the phased implementation of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act (OBBBA), there will be no changes to individual information returns or federal income tax withholding tables for the tax year at issue. 

The IRS has announced that, under the phased implementation of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act (OBBBA), there will be no changes to individual information returns or federal income tax withholding tables for the tax year at issue. Specifically, Form W-2, existing Forms 1099, Form 941 and other payroll return forms will remain unchanged for 2025. Employers and payroll providers are instructed to continue using current reporting and withholding procedures. This decision is intended to avoid disruptions during the upcoming filing season and to give the IRS, businesses and tax professionals sufficient time to implement OBBBA-related changes effectively.

In addition to this, IRS is developing new guidance and updated forms, including changes to the reporting of tips and overtime pay for TY 2026. The IRS will coordinate closely with stakeholders to ensure a smooth transition. Additional information will be issued to help individual taxpayers and reporting entities claim benefits under OBBBA when filing returns.

IR-2025-82

The IRS issued frequently asked questions (FAQs) relating to several energy credits and deductions that are expiring under the One, Big, Beautiful Bill Act (OBBB) and their termination dates. The FAQs also provided clarification on the energy efficient home improvement credit, the residential clean energy credit, among others.

The IRS issued frequently asked questions (FAQs) relating to several energy credits and deductions that are expiring under the One, Big, Beautiful Bill Act (OBBB) and their termination dates. The FAQs also provided clarification on the energy efficient home improvement credit, the residential clean energy credit, among others.

Energy Efficient Home Improvement Credit

The credit will not be allowed for any property placed in service after December 31, 2025.

Residential Clean Energy Credit

The credit will not be allowed for any expenditures made after December 31, 2025. Due to the accelerated termination of the Code Sec. 25C credit, periodic written reports, including reporting for property placed in service before January 1, 2026, are no longer required.

A manufacturer is still required to register with the IRS to become a qualified manufacturer for its specified property to be eligible for the credit.

Clean Vehicle Program

New user registration for the Clean Vehicle Credit program through the Energy Credits Online portal will close on September 30, 2025. The portal will remain open beyond September 30, 2025, for limited usage by previously registered users to submit time-of-sale reports and updates to such reports.

Acquiring Date

A vehicle is “acquired” as of the date a written binding contract is entered into and a payment has been made. Acquisition alone does not immediately entitle a taxpayer to a credit. If a taxpayer acquires a vehicle and makes a payment on or before September 30, 2025, the taxpayer will be entitled to claim the credit when they place the vehicle in service, even if the vehicle is placed in service after September 30, 2025.

FS-2025-5

IR-2025-86

The IRS has provided guidance regarding what is considered “beginning of constructions” for purposes of the termination of the Code Sec. 45Y clean electricity production credit and the Code Sec. 48E clean electricity investment credit. The One Big Beautiful Bill (OBBB) Act (P.L. 119-21) terminated the Code Secs. 45Y and 48E credits for applicable wind and solar facilities placed in service after December 31, 2027.

The IRS has provided guidance regarding what is considered “beginning of constructions” for purposes of the termination of the Code Sec. 45Y clean electricity production credit and the Code Sec. 48E clean electricity investment credit. The One Big Beautiful Bill (OBBB) Act (P.L. 119-21) terminated the Code Secs. 45Y and 48E credits for applicable wind and solar facilities placed in service after December 31, 2027. The termination applies to facilities the construction of which begins after July 4, 2026. On July 7, 2025, the president issue Executive Order 14315, Ending Market Distorting Subsidies for Unreliable, Foreign-Controlled Energy Sources, 90 F.R. 30821, which directed the Treasury Department to take actions necessary to enforce these termination provisions within 45 days of enactment of the OBBB Act.

Physical Work Test

In order to begin construction, taxpayers must satisfy a “Physical Work Test,” which requires the performance of physical work of a significant nature. This is a fact based test that focuses on the nature of the work, not the cost. The notice addresses both on-site and off-site activities. It also provides specific lists of activities that are to be considered work of a physical nature for both solar and wind facilities. Preliminary activities or work that is either in existing inventory or is normally held in inventory are not considered physical work of a significant nature.

Continuity Requirement

The Physical Work Test also requires that a taxpayer maintain a continuous program of construction on the applicable wind or solar facility, the Continuity Requirement. To satisfy the Continuity Requirement, the taxpayer must maintain a continuous program of construction, meaning continuous physical work of a significant nature. However, the notice provides a list of allowable “excusable disruptions,” including delays related to permitting, weather, and acquiring equipment, among others.

The guidance also provides a safe harbor for the Continuity Requirement. Under the safe harbor, the Continuity Requirement will be met if a taxpayer places an applicable wind or solar facility in service by the end of a calendar year that is no more than four calendar years after the calendar year during which construction of the applicable wind or solar facility began. Thus, if construction begins on an applicable wind or solar facility on October 1, 2025, the applicable wind or solar facility must be placed in service before January 1, 2030, for the safe harbor to apply.

Five Percent Safe Harbor for Low Output Solar Facilities

A safe harbor is available for a low output solar facility, which is defined as an applicable solar facility that has maximum net output of not greater than 1.5 megawatt. A low output solar facility may also establish that construction has begun before July 5, 2026, by satisfying the Five Percent Safe Harbor (as described in section 2.02(2)(ii) of Notice 2022-61).

Additional Guidance

The notice provides additional guidance regarding: construction produced for the taxpayer by another party under a binding written contract; the definition of a qualified facility; the definition of property integral to the applicable wind or solar facility; the application of the 80/20 rule to retrofitted applicable wind or solar facilities under Reg. §§ 1.45Y-4(d) and 1.48E-4(c); and the transfer of an applicable wind or solar facility.

Effective Date

Notice 2025-42 is effective for applicable wind and solar facilities for which the construction begins after September 1, 2025.

Notice 2025-42

The Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration suggested the way the Internal Revenue Service reports level of service (ability to reach an operator when requested) and wait times does not necessarily reflect the actual times taxpayers are waiting to reach a representative at the agency.

The Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration suggested the way the Internal Revenue Service reports level of service (ability to reach an operator when requested) and wait times does not necessarily reflect the actual times taxpayers are waiting to reach a representative at the agency.

"For the 2024 Filing Season, the IRS reported an LOS of 88 percent and wait times averaging 3 minutes," TIGTA stated in an August 14, 2025, report. "However, the reported LOS and average wait times only included calls made to 33 Accounts Management (AM) telephone lines during the filing season."

TIGTA stated that the agency separately tracks Enterprise LOS, a broader measure of of the taxpayer experience which includes 27 telephone lines from other IRS business units in addition to the 33 AM telephone lines.

"The IRS does not widely report an Enterprise-wide wait time- as the reported average wait time computation includes only the 33 AM telephone lines," the report states. "According to IRS data, the average wait times for the other telephone lines were much longer than 3 minutes, averaging 17 to 19 minutes during the 2024 Filing Season."

TIGTA recommended that the IRS adjust its reporting to include Enterprise LOS in addition to AM LOS and provide averages across all telephone lines.

"The IRS disagreed with both recommendations stating that the LOS metric does not provide information to determine taxpayer experience when calling, and including wait times for telephone lines outside the main helpline would be confusing to the public," the Treasury watchdog reported. "We maintain that whether a taxpayer can reach an assistor is part of the taxpayer experience and providing average wait times across all telephone lines for the entire fiscal year demonstrates transparency."

The Treasury watchdog also noted that the National Taxpayer Advocate has stated the AM LOS is "materially misleading" and should be replaced as a benchmark.

TIGTA also warned that the reduction in workforce at the IRS could hurt recent improvements to LOS and wait times, noting that the agency will lose about 23 percent of its customer service representative employees by the end of September 2025.

"The staffing impact on the remainder of Calendar Year 2025 and the 2026 Filing Season are unknown, but we will be monitoring these issues."

It also noted that the IRS is working on a new metric – First Call/Contact Resolution – to measure the percentage of calls that resolve the customer’s issue without a need to transfer, escalate, pause, or return the customer’s initial phone call. TIGTA reported that analysis of FY 2024 data revealed that 33 percent of taxpayer calls were transferred unresolved at least once.

By Gregory Twachtman, Washington News Editor

The Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) has granted exemptive relief to covered investment advisers from the requirements the final regulations in FinCEN Final Rule RIN 1506-AB58 (also called the "IA AML Rule"), which were set to become effective January 1, 2026. This order exempts covered investment advisers from all requirements of these regulations until January 1, 2028.

The Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) has granted exemptive relief to covered investment advisers from the requirements the final regulations in FinCEN Final Rule RIN 1506-AB58 (also called the "IA AML Rule"), which were set to become effective January 1, 2026. This order exempts covered investment advisers from all requirements of these regulations until January 1, 2028.

The regulations require investment advisers (defined in 31 CFR §1010.100(nnn)) to establish minimum standards for anti-money laundering/countering the financing of terrorism (AML/CFT) programs, report suspicious activity to FinCEN, and keep relevant records, among other requirements.

FinCEN has determined that the regulations should be reviewed to ensure that they strike an appropriate balance between cost and benefit. The review will allow FinCEN to ensure the regulations are consistent with the Trump administration's deregulatory agenda and are effectively tailored to the investment adviser sector's diverse business models and risk profiles, while still adequately protecting the U.S. financial system and guarding against money laundering, terrorist financing, and other illicit finance risks. Covered investment advisers are exempt from the obligations of the regulations while the review takes place.

FinCEN intends to issue a notice of proposed rulemaking (NPRM) to propose a new effective date for these regulations no earlier than January 1, 2028.

This exemptive relief is effective from August 5, 2025, until January 1, 2028.

FinCEN Exemptive Relief Order

After years of routine temporary extensions, Congress has made permanent a number of previously temporary tax breaks for individuals and businesses as well as extending others. The Protecting Americans from Tax Hikes Act of 2015 (PATH Act), signed into law by President Obama in December, opens the door to new planning opportunities.

After years of routine temporary extensions, Congress has made permanent a number of previously temporary tax breaks for individuals and businesses as well as extending others. The Protecting Americans from Tax Hikes Act of 2015 (PATH Act), signed into law by President Obama in December, opens the door to new planning opportunities.

Permanent extensions for individuals

Incentives for individuals extended permanently, and in some cases modified, by the PATH Act include:

• American Opportunity Tax Credit
• Deduction for certain expenses of elementary and secondary school teachers
• Parity for exclusion from income for employer-provided mass transit and parking benefits
• Deduction for state and local sales taxes
• Reduced earnings threshold for additional child tax credit
• Modification of the earned income tax credit
• Tax-free distributions from individual retirement plans for charitable purposes for individuals age 70 ½ and older
• Special rule for qualified conservation contributions

For some of the incentives, the modifications are significant. For example, the deduction for qualified expenses of elementary and secondary school teachers has been modified to include professional development expenses. Please contact our office for more details.

Permanent extensions for businesses

The PATH Act makes permanent, and in some cases modifies, many popular tax incentives for businesses, including:

• Research tax credit
• Enhanced expensing under Code Sec. 179
• Charitable deduction for contributions of food inventory
• Tax treatment of certain payments to controlling exempt organizations
• Extension of basis adjustment to stock of S corporations making charitable contributions of property
• Employer wage credit for employees who are active duty members of the uniformed services
• Extension of 15-year straight-line cost recovery for qualified leasehold improvements, qualified restaurant buildings and improvements, and qualified retail improvements
• Treatment of certain dividends of regulated investment companies
• Exclusion of 100 percent of gain on certain small business stock
• Reduction in S corporation recognition period for built-in gains tax
• Subpart F exception for active financing income
• Temporary minimum low-income housing tax credit rate for non-federally subsidized buildings
• Military housing allowance exclusion for determining whether a tenant in certain counties is low-income
• Extension of RIC qualified investment entity treatment under FIRPTA

As with the individual incentives, some of the modifications to the business incentives are significant. The research tax credit is not only made permanent, it is enhanced for small businesses. Expensing under Code Sec. 179 is made permanent at generous dollar and investment limitations. Previous limitations for the employer credit for activated reservists are relaxed. For more details, please contact our office.

More incentives extended

The PATH Act did not leave out the rest of the traditional extenders. However, lawmakers did not make these remaining tax breaks permanent. Extended for several years (in some cases through 2019, in other cases through 2016) are:

• bonus depreciation,
• the Work Opportunity Tax Credit (WOTC),
• the higher education tuition and fees deduction,
• energy incentives, the Indian employment credit,
• special expensing rules for television and film productions,
• and more.

Because the extensions are not uniform, as mentioned, some tax breaks are extended through 2019 and others are extended through 2016, careful planning is vital.

Please contact our office if you have any questions about the PATH Act.

Going into the 2016 filing season, the IRS has additional monetary resources to improve customer service and cybersecurity along with curbing identity theft. The fiscal year (FY) 2016 omnibus spending bill approved by Congress and signed into law by President Obama in December, allocates $290 million above FY 2015 funding to the IRS with instructions of where to spend the funds: customer service, tax-related identity theft and refund fraud, and cybersecurity.

Going into the 2016 filing season, the IRS has additional monetary resources to improve customer service and cybersecurity along with curbing identity theft. The fiscal year (FY) 2016 omnibus spending bill approved by Congress and signed into law by President Obama in December, allocates $290 million above FY 2015 funding to the IRS with instructions of where to spend the funds: customer service, tax-related identity theft and refund fraud, and cybersecurity.

Customer service

During the 2015 filing season, many taxpayers and tax professionals were very frustrated with customer service at the IRS. The National Taxpayer Advocate discovered that less than 40 percent of all calls to IRS customer service representatives were answered. The average wait time to speak with an IRS employee stretched past 20 minutes. Further, the IRS increased its use of so-called "courtesy disconnects." That occurs when the IRS disconnects an incoming call because its phone lines are overloaded. According to the National Taxpayer Advocate, the IRS disconnected more than eight million calls from taxpayers during the 2015 filing season.

Lawmakers became aware of the customer service challenges at the IRS over the course of several hearings during 2015. IRS Commissioner John Koskinen and other officials said that the agency "had to do more with less." Speaking in November, Koskinen said that without more funding, customer service would be worse in 2016.

The FY 2016 omnibus authorizes more funding for 1-800 help line services for taxpayers. Congress directed the IRS to make improving telephone service a priority and to enhance response times.

Identity theft

Tax-related identity theft occurs when a criminal uses the personal identification information of a taxpayer to file a return claiming a fraudulent refund. Typically, refund fraud occurs early in the filing season. The taxpayer files a legitimate return and discovers that his or her identity has been stolen.

In response, the IRS has continuously upgraded its processing filters to uncover fraudulent returns. The agency has also partnered with state tax authorities and private sector tax software vendors and launched public education campaigns about tax-related identity theft. The FY 2016 omnibus authorizes more funding to improve the identification and prevention tax-related identity theft and refund fraud.

Cybersecurity 

In 2015, the IRS acknowledged that cybercriminals hacked its popular online Get Transcript app. The app enables taxpayers to obtain line-by-line return information. Criminals, the IRS explained, have used this information to file false returns that claim tax items similar to those items that taxpayers have claimed in the past and to generate fraudulent refunds. The FY 2016 omnibus appropriates more funding to enhance cybersecurity to safeguard taxpayer data.

If you have any questions about the impact of IRS’s FY 2016 budget, please contact our office.

The IRS has issued the 2016 optional standard mileage rates for calculating the deductible costs of operating an automobile for business, charitable, medical, and moving purposes (Notice 2016-1; IR-2015-137). The decline in gas prices appeared to spur the drop in the optional rates.

The IRS has issued the 2016 optional standard mileage rates for calculating the deductible costs of operating an automobile for business, charitable, medical, and moving purposes (Notice 2016-1; IR-2015-137). The decline in gas prices appeared to spur the drop in the optional rates.

The optional standard mileage rate for business will drop from 57.5 cents a mile (for 2015) to 54 cents a mile for 2016, a decrease of 3.5 cents, and the lowest rate in five years. The optional standard mileage rates for medical and moving expenses drops from 23 cents for 2015 to 19 cents per mile for 2016, a decrease of four cents and, again, the lowest rate in five years. The optional standard mileage rate for charitable expenses, which is set by statute, remains at 14 cents per mile for 2016.

Rules for use

Rev. Proc. 2010-51 provides rules for computing deductible costs of operating an automobile, including the use of the optional standard rates. The business standard mileage rate is a substitute for all the costs of an automobile for business use, including depreciation, maintenance and repairs, and gasoline.

However, a taxpayer may not use the business standard mileage rate after using a depreciation method under Code Sec. 168 or after claiming the Code Sec. 179 deduction for that vehicle. Furthermore, a taxpayer may not use the business rate for more than four vehicles at a time.

To compute the allowance under a fixed and variable rate plan, the standard automobile cost may not exceed $28,000 for cars or $31,000 for trucks and vans.

Depreciation

For automobiles used for business, a taxpayer must use 24 cents per mile as the portion of the standard mileage rate treated as depreciation for 2016. For prior years, these amounts are 24 cents for 2015, 22 cents for 2014, and 23 cents for both 2012 and 2013. These amounts are used to calculate basis reductions for depreciation taken under the standard mileage rate.