Tax-Exempt & Government Entities: Compliance program and priorities

This strategy will review worker classification to ensure taxpayers aren’t reducing their tax burden by incorrectly treating workers as independent contractors instead of employees. Worker misclassification results in employers underreporting and underpaying Federal Insurance Contributions Act (FICA) and Federal Income taxes and may also result in incorrect exclusion from employer retirement plans. The treatment stream for this strategy is examinations.

The focus of this strategy is to review retirement plans of small exempt organizations to determine whether the plan investments are properly administered, whether there are any party-in-interest transactions in the plan trust and whether any participant loans violate Internal Revenue Code (IRC) Section 72(p). Improper transactions between the plan and its participants can result in prohibited transactions under IRC Section 4975, deeming distributions as taxable income, or result in IRC Section 72(t) early distribution penalties. The treatment stream for this strategy is examinations.

This focus of this strategy is to review one-participant 401(k) plans to determine if there are operational or qualification failures, income and excise tax adjustments, or plan document violations. The treatment stream for this strategy is examinations.

The focus of this strategy are retirement plans of employers that were determined to have misclassified employees as independent contractors. These retirement plans will be reviewed to determine if coverage requirements of the Internal Revenue Code are satisfied. The treatment stream for this strategy is examinations.

This strategy is to ensure retirement plan sponsors comply with Internal Revenue Code (IRC) Section 401(a)(9) to begin distribution of benefits by April 1 following the calendar year an employee turns 70 ½. Failure to make these distributions could cause plan disqualification as well as a 50% excise tax on amounts not distributed. The treatment stream for this strategy is examinations.

The purpose of this strategy is to determine if an exempt organization was eligible to file Form 990-N where related filings indicate the $50,000 gross receipts threshold was not met. The treatment stream for this strategy is examinations.

This strategy is to review the impact of the new Internal Revenue Code Section 4960 excise tax on excess compensation. IRC Section 4960 imposes a 21% excise tax on tax-exempt organizations that pay over $1 million in compensation to any “covered employee.” On-going review of filing data shows there continues to be a high volume of exempt organizations that paid compensation of over $1 million to at least one “covered employee” but did not report IRC Section 4960 excise tax on Form 4720, Return of Certain Excise Taxes Under Chapters 41 and 42 of the Internal Revenue Code. The approved workstreams for this strategy are compliance checks and examinations of Form 4720.

The focus of this strategy is on compliance with the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA). We will verify whether tax-exempt hospitals are complying with their statutory obligations under Internal Revenue Code Section 501(c)(3), including the community benefit standard, and Section 501(r). The treatment stream for this strategy is examinations.

The focus of this strategy is to ensure that exempt organizations identified as supporting athletes through the use of their name, image, or likeness, for compensation, disclosed their activities in their application for exempt status and that those activities are in full compliance with the existing legal requirements under Internal Revenue Code Section 501(a). The treatment stream for this strategy is examinations.

We’ll continue to pursue referrals received from internal and external sources that allege noncompliance by a bond issuer, exempt organization, government entity, retirement plan and Tribal entity.

We’ll continue to address requests for refunds or credits of overpayments of amounts already assessed and paid; they can include tax, penalties and interest, or be a request for an adjustment of tax paid or credit not previously reported or allowed.

With this strategy, we will determine if plan sponsors who reported plan liabilities on their Form 5500-series return are engaging in activities that result in taxable unrelated business income. Large, unusual and questionable liabilities may result from prohibited transactions, unrelated business income or failure to value assets properly. The unrelated business income tax provisions of the Internal Revenue Code ensure that exempt organizations are taxed on income earned from activities that are unrelated to the purpose for which they were granted exempt status. The treatment stream for this strategy is compliance checks.

This initiative is to review Internal Revenue Code Section 509 (a)(3) organizations that file the Form 990-N, Annual Electronic Filing Requirement for Small Exempt Organizations, to determine if they meet the eligibility standards to file the form. Misfiling of Form 990-Ns by 509 (a)(3) organizations limits the availability of activity and financial information otherwise contained in these forms. The treatment stream for this initiative will be educational letters informing 509 (a)(3) organizations of Form 990-N eligibility criteria.

We continue to expect a large volume of determination application receipts and will continue to look for process efficiencies.

We’ll continue to process voluntary correction applications submitted electronically through Pay.gov under the Employee Plans Compliance Resolution Program (EPCRS) and enter into compliance statements with plan sponsors to resolve failures to comply with the plan qualification requirements, avoiding plan disqualification.

We’ll continue to resolve noncompliance in tax-advantaged bond issues through the voluntary closing agreement program.