Update: Appellate Court Upholds Denial of Charitable Deduction for Reporting Omission

Back in 2017, I discussed the case of Reri Holdings I, LLC here. There, the Tax Court denied a charitable deduction of over $33 million since the taxpayer did not include the adjusted basis information for the property in its Form 8283 filing. The Tax Court concluded that the substantial compliance doctrine could not be used by the taxpayer to salvage the deduction since the reporting of the basis, while not directly relevant to a charitable deduction, would have assisted the IRS in evaluating the contribution without an audit since a large disparity between basis and the value of the deduction would alert the IRS to potential issues.

The case was affirmed by the D.C. Court of Appeals in May of this year.

RERI Holdings I, LLC, 149 TC 1 (2017), aff’d, D.C. Court of Appeals, No. 17-1266 (May 24, 2019)

Employers Can Truncate Employee Social Security Numbers on Forms W-2

In an effort to reduce identity theft, the IRS has issued final regulations that permit employers to truncate the social security numbers of employees on Forms W-2. Thus, the employer can elect to report the number in the format of XXX-XX-1234 or ***-**-1234 instead of providing the whole number. It is not a mandatory provision – the employer can choose to do it if it wants.

Full taxpayer identification numbers are still required on the copies of the Forms W-2 that are filed with the Social Security Administration, and on those of payers of third-party sick pay to employers.

The regulations are effective for items filed or furnished after December 31, 2020.

TD 9861