News Updates

During the recent Special Session, the Nebraska Legislature passed LB34, which adopts the Property Tax Growth Limitation Act and the School District Property Tax Relief Act and changes provisions relating to revenue and taxation. The bill was signed by Gov. Jim Pillen on August 20, 2024.

Lawmakers embraced the ‘absolute minimum’ LB 34 and said farewell to the class of senators elected in 2016, who led the charge to continue working.

The Internal Revenue Service announced Thursday it plans to mail up to 30,000 letters to reverse potentially more than $1 billion in incorrect Employee Retention Credit claims. It is sending the letters to underscore its reopening of a voluntary disclosure program for a limited time until Nov. 22, 2024. This will allow businesses to fix improper ERC claims at a 15% discount without penalties or interest.

The Mercatus Center of George Mason University has released its 2024 edition of “Snapshots of State Regulations.” As with most rating systems, this allows states to compare themselves to other states and examine particular strengths and weaknesses in their systems. These strengths and weaknesses explain good and bad rankings and provide focus areas for continued work or improvement.

The Nebraska Legislature started last week with LB34, introduced by Sen. Tom Brewer of Gordon, as the new vehicle for Gov. Jim Pillen's property tax relief plan. The bill was advanced from the Revenue Committee on a 6-1 vote with a committee amendment that contained the major portions of LB1, including new taxes and the elimination of certain exemptions for more than 60 products and services. (The provisions to tax accounting services and tax preparation services were removed before the bill even made it out of committee.) Ultimately, the amendment did not have enough votes to advance and they substituted that amendment with AM84, which significantly pared down the bill and ultimately advanced.

The Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) has amped up its outreach efforts to update businesses on the requirements for beneficial ownership information (BOI), which requires reports from over 32 million businesses this year.

The Internal Revenue Service and the Security Summit partners have announced the availability of a new, updated Written Information Security Plan (WISP) designed to help protect tax professionals against continuing threats from identity thieves and data breaches.

How do you go from teaching and testing material in a set time to providing students time (and multiple testing opportunities) to gain 100% understanding of the material? Find out in this Academic Update feature article.

Gov. Pillen has a new property tax relief plan using LB 9, which was introduced by Sen. Jana Hughes of Seward. Although the proposal still includes the taxation of more than 70 goods and services, it does NOT include the taxation of accounting and legal services, advertising, and cloud or data services. Several property tax relief bills are expected to be combined into LB 9 this afternoon.

A bill to expand the child tax credit (CTC) and restore some tax breaks for businesses failed to advance in the Senate on Thursday on a 48-44 vote. Republicans largely opposed the measure, arguing they would be in position to get a better deal next year. The $79bn legislation would have expanded CTC eligibility among the lowest-income families and adjusted payments for inflation for the 2024 and 2025 filing years. It also would have bolstered certain business tax credits, including deductions for research and development, interest expenses and investments in equipment, that were limited in an effort to cap the total costs of former President Donald Trump’s 2017 tax cut law. Sen. Mike Crapo (RID), the ranking member of the Senate Finance Committee, described the vote as a “blatant attempt to score political points.," adding that Senate Republicans have concerns about the policy, but are willing to negotiate a “child tax credit solution that a majority of Republicans can support.” Sens. Joe Manchin (I-WV) and Bernie Sanders (I-VT), who caucus with Democrats, also voted against the measure. Without action from Congress, the child tax credit, among other individual tax provisions, will revert to 2017 levels after 2025. “Next year, they’ll have a bigger job to do because you have an underlying credit that’s much more expensive to extend,” said Garrett Watson, senior policy analyst and modeling manager at the Tax Foundation.

Severe storms overnight Wednesday that knocked out electricity for more than 240,000 Nebraskans and downed trees and power lines with gusts of wind up to 100 mph spurred Gov. Jim Pillen to issue a state disaster declaration. Pillen declared a disaster Thursday in six counties: Cass, Douglas, Lancaster, Sarpy, Saunders and Washington.

Sen. Linehan says funding for “the ‘needs’ side, though it might need some adjustments, is better than saying, ‘we’ll figure it out later.’”

John Cederberg, CPA of Lincoln presented testimony in regard to the language in Sections 52 and 53 of LB 1. Cederberg submitted a detailed 11-page letter to the Revenue Committee asking the committee to remove the language in LB 1 that would terminate the provision for Nebraska resident shareholders of S corporations, and Nebraska resident members of LLCs, which have active business operations in multiple states to include in their individual Nebraska taxable income only their proportionate share of the S corporation’s or LLC’s Nebraska source taxable income.

The Court held that the APA requires courts to exercise their independent judgment in deciding whether an agency has acted within its statutory authority and not to defer to an agency’s interpretation of the law simply because a statute is ambiguous.

EY just released an updated U.S. Employment Tax Rates and Limits for 2024. Download the document for future reference.

The final regulations require custodial brokers to report transactions on Form 1099-DA, which the IRS will release soon. A different set of final regulations with rules for noncustodial brokers will be issued later.

Calls for reform have been growing louder as the number of US students taking accounting courses and going on to sit professional exams has fallen, leaving some accounting firms struggling to hire replacements for the Baby Boomers who are retiring.

The plan calls for more support for CPA exam candidates, retooling introductory university accounting courses to attract more students, and building awareness of accounting careers among underrepresented groups. It also urges accountants to take a “pipeline pledge,” committing to lend their time to encourage students and tell new accountants about how they’ve built fulfilling careers.

Now is the time to talk with high-net-worth clients about using the temporarily doubled estate and gift tax exclusion before its sunset in 2026.

No New Taxes Nebraska, a coalition of more than 40 businesses and organizations, has developed a webpage to provide information on the proposed EPIC tax. EPIC tax is a proposed ballot initiative that would eliminate property and individual and corporate income taxes and implement a proposed statewide consumption tax of 7.5%. However, a recent study found that the plan could require a much higher rate of tax of 20% or more to sustainably fund the state’s government services. Additionally, the initiative will take local budget and spending control away from local political subdivisions and place it into the hands of the Nebraska Legislature.