welcome to tax breaks I'm your host Kelly Philips Serb I'm a senior writer for Forbes and you may have seen me around the web as tax girl I'm also a tax attorney and I work with taxpayers and tax professionals like you every day there's a lot to talk about so let's get started this week the lights are still on in DC more shakeups at IRS increased Financial scrutiny from the government reading your tax transcripts investing your IRA in Gold tax trivia tax filing deadlines and more as the deadline loomed Congress voted to avoid a government shutdown that's after the Democrats leader Senator Chuck Schumer a Democrat out of New York voted yes on a procedure to advance a spending vote the CIT vote follows an earlier vote in the house to fund the government through September 30th 2025 the final house vote was 20 117 to 2113 with only one Republican Thomas Massie of Kentucky voting no and only one Democrat Jared golden of Maine voting yes the Congressional budget office or CBO estimates that the bill will cost 1.6 trillion that breaks down into 893 billion for defense and $78 billion for non defense spending the continuing resolution or CR largely mirrors the previous year funding measures while increasing military spending by $6 billion and cutting 13 billion in non-defense spending it also includes a boost in Immigration and Customs Enforcement or ice deportation operations and Claw back 20.2 billion dollar of IRS funding this is in addition to earlier Cuts cuts to the IRS budget weren't the only issues for the tax agency this week weeks after the acting IRS commissioner departed another another high-profile staffer is leaving acting Chief counsel William Paul has been removed and is expected to be replaced by Andrew Dello Paul was reportedly demoted because he refused to cooperate with Elon musk's Department of government efficiency or Doge as Doge Representatives allegedly sought to share taxpayer information with other federal agencies the chief Council a position that dates back to 1866 is the chief legal advisor to the IRS commissioner on all matters related to the interpretation Administration and enforcement of tax laws and other legal issues attorneys in the chief council's office serve as lawyers for the IRS they provide IRS and taxpayers with guidance on interpreting federal tax laws and represent the IRS in litigation matters typically in tax court before recent Personnel counts the chief Council organization had approximately 2,000 600 employees other IRS cuts are still in the news to date approximately 7,000 probationary employees in the IRS have been fired while probationary employees are often recent hires meaning within the last 1 to two years they don't have to be those who have been serving for years but were recently moved or promoted into a new position also qualify as probationary however a US District Judge in California called the terminations of probationary employees unlawful and ordered their reinstatement the order impacts All Fired probationary employees from six federal agencies including the US Treasury the home of the IRS that relief for IRS employees may be shortlived as reports suggest that the IRS will make additional dramatic cuts to its Workforce the exact numbers estimates are between 20 and 50% and the timing of those cuts have not been confirmed but even as cuts are happening tax season is rolling on IRS data from the fifth week of the tax filing season the week ending February 28th 2025 continues to suggest that taxpayers are not excited about filing this tax season numbers for tax filing and processing of tax returns remain low a Mark that has not changed since the beginning of the filing season while the IRS may be slowing down the treasury's financial crimes enforcement Network or finson may be coming busier the Trump Administration is seeking more information about financial transactions for those who live or do business in one of 30 ZIP codes in California and Texas near the border beginning in April finson will require money service businesses and those zip codes to report those Americans who spend more than $200 in cash or cash equivalent on items like money orders and travelers checks that's a dramatic expansion of the standard $10,000 cash reporting role the MSB designation again that's for money service businesses includes businesses like check cashing services sellers of Travelers checks or money orders and money transmitters The increased reporting rule is in sharp contrast to eliminate other reporting requirements the House of Representatives has voted to repeal a Biden era reporting requirement focused on decentralized finance or defi the bill reverses the defi broker rule published by the treasury in December 2024 the rule created reporting requirements for trading front-end service providers that work directly with users on digital asset transactions defi refers to peer-to-peer Financial Services on the blockchain in simple terms it's crypto and digital currency without the banks financial service companies or other middlemen defi Brokers are a little more challenging to Define as stakeholders pointed out after the final regulations were made public notably dii Brokers are decentralized it's right there in the name and as such do not collect information from users that would be needed to comply with the rule the vote now moves to the Senate which voted earlier to overturn the rule procedurally however the vote has to happen again to line up with the House vote as you can tell there's a lot happening in the tax and budget space right now we're doing our best to sort out fact from speculation as we aim to keep you informed I know it can be a bit overwhelming having so much happen during tax season keeps tax professionals and taxpayers on edge I hope that you'll take a break go on a long walk enjoy a Guinness in some corn beef and cabbage or do a little early spring gardening feel free to drop me a note and let me know how you're keeping sane during the tax season now let's answer a taxpayer question this week a reader asked my tax refund is late when I checked my transcript there was a code 570 am I being audited so here's my answer I generally encourage taxpayers to take advantage of their IRS online account including taking a peek at their transcript when appropriate that said while IRS transcripts can be helpful they can also be complicated if you're not sure what you're looking at that includes transcript codes or TC on your account one of those codes is tc57 or TC 570 which is a c C all it simply means that there's a delay in processing your tax return you'll note that it's typically accompanied by the words additional account action pending the code TC 570 doesn't necessarily mean that you did anything wrong importantly you don't need to do anything further until you hear from the IRS there's no need to call and spend time on hold for example the IRS may send you a letter asking for more information this is often when testing indicates that there might be fraud on the account when that happens the account is flagged and the IRS stops processing your return the IRS may send you a letter asking for more information this is often when testing indicates that there might be fraud on the account when that happens the account is flagged and the IRS stops processing your return they'll usually send you a letter with information and further instructions if identity theft is suspected you'll typically receive a letter 5071 C asking you to verify your identity if so follow the instructions found in that letter TC 570 could also be triggered for other reasons like questions about credits that you claimed on your return or income that you reported if that's the case expect a letter asking for more information if you receive a letter from the IRS it's important to respond promptly if you don't your tax return could be further delayed once the IRS has has resolved the issue you may see TC 571 that's the thumbs up if you see TC 846 after that that means that the IRS has finally issued your tax refund with that I don't recommend using the transcript tool to check on your refund the fastest best way to get information about your refund is to use the where's my refund tool available on irs.gov and also as an app refund status is typically available within 24 hours after the IRS receives your e-filed return for the current tax year or 4 weeks after mailing your paper tax return and remember the IRS only updates the tool once a day usually overnight so there's no benefit to checking throughout the day if you have a text question or a matter that you think we should cover in the next episode let us know you'll find more information in the show notes of course if you follow me on Forbes you know that I love looking at statistics and enjoy a good chart or map this week I'm focused on tax refunds the IRS may have your money the tax agency says that more than $1 billion in outstanding tax refunds remains unclaimed from the 2021 tax year the agency estimates that more than 1.1 million taxpayers might have qualified for a tax refund but did not file a federal income tax return in order to claim it if you were due a tax refund typically you must f file a federal income tax return to get your money taxpayers usually have 3 years to file and claim their tax refunds if you don't file within those three years the money becomes the property of the US Treasury the three-year window for filing your 2021 tax return would close on April 15 2025 the IRS estimated how many people in each state might be entitled to a tax refund based on their data taxpayers in New York Pennsylvania Rhode Island Massachusetts and Illinois are expected to have the highest median potential refund California aaho New Jersey Minnesota and Montana taxpayers are expected to have the lowest refunds not surprisingly taxpayers in the most populated states are missing out the most more than 100,000 taxpayers in each of California and Texas may be entitled to a tax refund for the 2021 tax year followed by New York Florida and Pennsylvania taxpayers in less populated states may be missing out too with thousands of taxpayers in Wyoming North Dakota Vermont South Dakota and the District of Columbia also reporting potentially unclaimed refunds if you think you're doe a tax refund time is running out to claim your money now it's time for a little tax trivia the IRS expects to receive more than 140 million individual tax returns for the tax year 2024 by the Tuesday April 15 deadline in the first year of the modern federal income tax system those tax returns received in 1914 approximately how many returns did the IRS received here are your choices a 350,000 B 750,000 C 1.5 million D 3 million I'll give you a [Music] minute the answer is a 350,000 by 1945 IRS was processing 50 million individual tax returns annually in 2024 the IRS received 139 million1 37,000 individual income tax returns by tax day and 164 m473 by year end now it's time for a deeper dive and it's a look at gold and retirement accounts the markets may be down but the price of gold is up over the past 5 years the price of gold has increased by more than 78% with each bar of gold bullion costing more than $1 million so does that make precious metals a good choice for your IRA the tax code allows certain precious metals to be held in an IRA under Section 408 M3 of the tax code to qualify gold must meet specific Purity standards with bullion bars and coins typically needing to be at least 99.5% pure there are other rules this is tax law after all for example the gold must be stored in an IRS approved depository that means personal storage of gold such as at home or in a safe is prohibited and not all gold products qualify collectible coins for example are usually not permitted if you do not want to have physical ownership of the bullion your IRA can buy shares of an exchange traded fund or ETF that follows the value of a precious metal that's according to private letter ruling 2007 3202 the bottom line you can invest in some non-traditional assets like precious metals or ETFs in your IRA now for something a little more brief some quick tax and accounting newsmakers April 1st will be here soon and it's the deadline for retirees who turned 73 in 2024 to begin receiving the required minimum distributions or rmds from IRAs 401ks and other retirement plans under a Special Rule Ira owners and participants born after December 31st 1950 and who turned 73 in 2024 can delay their first required minimum distribution or rmd until April 1st 2025 the April 1st deadline is for the first year only for subsequent years the distribution is due by December 31st further taxpayers receiving their first required minimum distribution or rmd for 2024 in 2025 that's by that April 1 deadline must take out a second rmd for 2025 by December 1st 2025 and a postelection boost in business Executives optimism about the US economy has moderated declining from a more than three-year high of 67% last quarter to 47% this quarter the American Institute of CPAs or aicpa and the chartered Institute of Management accountants cmia economic Outlook survey found these results the shift reflects growing concerns about inflation and tariffs according to the survey which pulls chief executive officers Chief Financial officers controllers and other certified public accountants in US companies who hold executive and Senior management accounting roles and that's a wrap thanks to all of you who continue to watch comment and share the show I'd love to know what you thought of this episode you can send an email with your feedback to kerb forge.com and if you like it please share you can also find a link to the audio of each episode on forbes.com thanks for listening because paying taxes is painful but hearing about them shouldn't have to be [Music]