The implications of delaying ACA repeal, getting media exposure during filing season, and other highlights from our favorite tax bloggers.

Reform school

• Tax Vox (http://taxvox.taxpolicycenter.org): A look at the tax reform implications of delaying ACA repeal – the latter itself a concept with “significant implications for a big 2017 tax bill.”
• Tax Analysts (http://www.taxanalysts.org/tax-analysts-blog): And another thing: “Reform is in the eye of the beholder.” That’s followed by one of our favorite lines of the week, “The elements of any given effort at tax reform resemble a tub of Play-Doh, before the stuff becomes an actual thing. What ultimately emerges from the pliable, sweet-smelling goo depends on the vision and skill of the crafters.”

Here’s how

Trickling down

• Procedurally Taxing (http://www.procedurallytaxing.com/): Guest blogger Carl Smith analyzes the 7th Circuit’s recent opinion in Tilden v. Comm’r. The opinion discusses two issues: whether the time to file a petition in Tax Court in a deficiency case is jurisdictional, and the proper application of the timely mailing regulations.
• Mauled Again (http://mauledagain.blogspot.com/): This week’s entry opens with the Facebook meme: “Put $100 in the hands of a poor person, and that person will spend it because that person needs to do so. Put the $100 in the hands of a rich person, and the rich person doesn’t do anything, because that person doesn’t need to do anything.” In short, “Who Pays the Price for Trickle-Down Tax Policy Failures?”
• Rubin on Tax (http://rubinontax.blogspot.com/): A look at a recent private letter ruling determining that a large grant at the time a new organization had begun operations qualified as an unusual grant.
• Summing It Up (http://blog.freedmaxick.com/summing-it-up): How FASB’s recent ASU 2016-16 “adds transparency and simplifies reporting” to the prescribed method of accounting for income taxes on the sale of assets between affiliated companies.

Gambles

Last call

• Due Diligence (http://www.mahanyertl.com/mahanyertl/): In this week’s collection: “Ocwen’s Newest Lie?”; “ ‘Banks Pump Up?’ So Do Whistleblower Lawyers!”; “FCPA Foreign Bribery Active Investigations – Last Call for Whistleblowers”; “Kaiser Health News”; “First Loan Officers, Now PNC Asst. Managers Win FLSA Suit”; “When Whistleblowers Do Things Their Way”; and “Freedom Mortgage Found Guilty of Defrauding Homeowner.”
• ClientWhys (http://www.clientwhys.com/blog.iml): Tax pros are the target of the latest phishing scam in which crooks ask for help preparing a return or with a similar service. Do not visit the site, do not log in and do not provide legitimate details.
• Federal Tax Crimes (http://federaltaxcrimes.blogspot.com/): Nuggets from the IRS Whistleblower Program Fiscal Year 2016 Annual Report to Congress, including amounts collected – which, believe it or not, may be low compared with future years now in the pipeline.

Jeff Stimpson is a veteran freelance journalist who previously served as editor of The Practical Accountant.