The 10 members of the ACT presented their 2018 report to the IRS in a public meeting in Washington, DC on June 7, 2018, on five issues:

• Employee Plans: Recommendations regarding the re-opening of the IRS Determination Letter Program
• Employee Plans: Recommendations regarding missing participants in retirement plans
• Exempt Organizations: Recommendations regarding incentivizing universal e-filing for Forms 990
• Indian Tribal Governments: Recommendations regarding sharing of taxpayer information with tribal government tax programs
• Tax Exempt Bonds: Recommendations regarding encouraging self-compliance by issuers of tax-advantaged obligations/tax exempt bonds

Friday, June 29, 2018, 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. in Social Science and Business – SSB #335 (on the UMSL north campus, note different building than most of our classes take place).

Diversity and inclusion initiatives have been proven to not only make organizations more accessible, but more successful. Intentional diversity and inclusion leads to more innovation in thinking, greater productivity, and a more engaged team. So how can we work to make our volunteer programs accessible to a wide range of people, in order to create an engaged, effective team of diverse volunteers? This interactive workshop will explore the concepts of diversity, inclusion, and implicit bias, in order to help us understand these concepts and their effect on our current practices around volunteer recruitment, engagement, and retention. Attendees will have the opportunity to evaluate their existing volunteer program through the lens of diversity and inclusion, brainstorm and share

The Internal Revenue Service released a new five-year Strategic Plan outlining goals to improve taxpayer service and tax administration.

The Fiscal Year 2018-2022 IRS Strategic Plan will serve as a roadmap to help guide the agency’s programs and operations. The plan will also help meet the changing needs of taxpayers and members of the tax community.

The strategic plan, developed with input from external partners as well as IRS employees, focuses on six goals that will help improve customer service:

EP and EO participating in 2018 IRS Nationwide Tax Forums

Employee Plans and Exempt Organizations will participate in the 2018 IRS Nationwide Tax Forums in five cities starting in July. The forums offer three days of seminars and workshops featuring speakers from both the IRS and tax practitioner organizations. In addition to getting the latest tax information, tax professionals can earn continuing education credits for their attendance.

Tax Scams/Consumer Alerts

Thousands of people have lost millions of dollars and their personal information to tax scammers using regular mail, phone, or email.

The IRS doesn’t initiate contact with taxpayers by email, text messages or social media channels to request personal or financial information. Recognize the telltale signs of a scam. See: How to know it’s really the IRS calling or knocking on your door

Updated forms and publications:

• Publication 3386, Tax Guide – Veterans Organizations

Thursday, June 14, 2018 from 3-5 p.m. in # 202 JC Penney Conference Center (on the UMSL north campus)

This interactive and data-driven workshop covers a range of SEO (Search Engine Optimization) and on-line search marketing issues.  Some of the topics to be covered will include:

• Increasing organic search visibility
• On-page optimization
• Keyword discovery
• Tracking and reporting
• Link building
• Search marketing, including Google Grants
• Content marketing

Showing up in search engine results (organic search) is a key way to reach your most important audiences. But improving your website’s visibility in Google can be daunting. Designed specifically for nonprofit organizations, this expert-led workshop will teach you how to implement SEO best practices that will improve your organization’s online visibility, boost fundraising efforts, drive qualified web traffic, and bring increased awareness to your cause.

Key Takeaways:

• How search engines work
• The 3 most important SEO considerations
• How SEO fits
  

Understanding Payment Options – Thursday, May 24 (Two Sessions)

Includes an overview of:

• Direct Pay
• Online Payment Agreements
• Cash Payments/IRS-Pay Near Me
• Other Payment Options
• Plus a live Q & A

Register for one of these sessions.

• Session 1 (60 minutes) 11 a.m. Eastern
• Session 2 (60 minutes) 2 p.m. Eastern – Closed captioning offered for Session 2 web conference ONLY.

The Office of Professional Responsibility: What You Need to Know about Practicing before the IRS (rebroadcast) – Wednesday, June 13

This free two-hour broadcast is for tax professionals and covers:

• Changes to the regulations governing tax practice before the IRS (Circular 230 Rev. 6/2014)
• Due Diligence obligations of tax professionals
• Overview of other key Circular 230 provisions
• Practitioner responsibilities to their clients and the Tax Administration System
• Best practices for tax professionals
• Office of Professional Responsibility Policies and Procedures

Register

New IRS online tool offers expanded access to information on tax-exempt organizations; newly-filed data available to public for first time

The IRS introduced a new online tool designed to provide faster, easier access to publicly available information about exempt organizations.

The new Tax Exempt Organization Search (TEOS) replaces EO Select Check, a more limited tool available since 2012 that focused primarily on providing information on an organization’s tax-exempt status. Among the enhancements, the new TEOS tool includes images of newly-filed 990 forms and it’s mobile friendly so you can access it using smartphones or tablets.

“This new tool provides taxpayers an easy way to get information about charitable organizations,” said Acting IRS Commissioner David Kautter. “Tax-exempt organizations play a critical role in our nation, and this will provide greater insight for people considering donations.”

Many tax-exempt organizations must file information returns by May 15; do not include