WASHINGTON - The Internal Revenue Service is releasing a revenue procedure today providing rules for the nationwide rollout of post-Appeals mediation for Offer in Compromise (OIC) and Trust Fund Recovery Penalty (TFRP) cases. The IRS Office of Appeals originally launched post-Appeals mediation for OIC and TFRP cases as a pilot program available in certain cities in December 2008.

Post-Appeals mediation is available to help resolve disputes after unsuccessful negotiations with the IRS Office of Appeals and is available for both factual and legal issues. The mediator’s role is to assist the parties in reaching their own agreement collaboratively, but the mediator does not have settlement authority over any issue. Appeals Officers trained in mediation techniques will serve as mediators at no cost to taxpayers. Taxpayers also have the option of paying for a qualified non-IRS co-mediator.

Taxpayers or the IRS Office of Appeals may request nonbinding mediation for eligible cases, but the taxpayer may decline the IRS Office of Appeal’s request for mediation. The goal is to complete the process within 90 days after the mediation request is approved.

Eligibility criteria and complete procedures for initiating a post-Appeals mediation request for both examination and collection issues are in Revenue Procedure 2014-63, which will be published in Internal Revenue Bulletin 2014-53 on Dec. 29, 2014.

For more information on post-Appeals mediation for OIC and TFRP cases, please visit the Appeals Mediation Programs webpage available on IRS.gov.

WASHINGTON - The Internal Revenue Service today issued the 2015 optional standard mileage rates used to calculate the deductible costs of operating an automobile for business, charitable, medical or moving purposes.

Beginning on Jan. 1, 2015, the standard mileage rates for the use of a car, van, pickup or panel truck will be:

• 57.5 cents per mile for business miles driven, up from 56 cents in 2014
• 23 cents per mile driven for medical or moving purposes, down half a cent from 2014 
• 14 cents per mile driven in service of charitable organizations

The standard mileage rate for business is based on an annual study of the fixed and variable costs of operating an automobile, including depreciation, insurance, repairs, tires, maintenance, gas and oil. The rate for medical and moving purposes is based on the variable costs, such as gas and oil. The charitable rate is set by law.

Taxpayers always have the option of claiming deductions based on the actual costs of using a vehicle rather than the standard mileage rates.

A taxpayer may not use the business standard mileage rate for a vehicle after claiming accelerated depreciation, including the Section 179 expense deduction, on that vehicle. Likewise, the standard rate is not available to fleet owners (more than four vehicles used simultaneously). Details on these and other special rules are in Revenue Procedure 2010-51, the instructions to Form 1040 and various online IRS publications including Publication 17, Your Federal Income Tax.

Besides the standard mileage rates, Notice 2014-79, posted today on IRS.gov, also includes the basis reduction amounts for those choosing the business standard mileage rate, as well as the maximum standard automobile cost   that may be used in computing an allowance under  a fixed and variable rate plan.

WASHINGTON – The Internal Revenue Service today announced that interest rates will remain the same for the calendar quarter beginning Jan. 1, 2015.  The rates will be: 

• three (3) percent for overpayments (two (2) percent in the case of a corporation);
• three (3) percent for underpayments;
• five (5) percent for large corporate underpayments; and
• one-half (0.5) percent for the portion of a corporate overpayment exceeding $10,000.

Under the Internal Revenue Code, the rate of interest is determined on a quarterly basis.  For taxpayers other than corporations, the overpayment and underpayment rate is the federal short-term rate plus 3 percentage points. 

Generally, in the case of a corporation, the underpayment rate is the federal short-term rate plus 3 percentage points and the overpayment rate is the federal short-term rate plus 2 percentage points. The rate for large corporate underpayments is the federal short-term rate plus 5 percentage points. The rate on the portion of a corporate overpayment of tax exceeding $10,000 for a taxable period is the federal short-term rate plus one-half (0.5) of a percentage point.

The interest rates announced today are computed from the federal short-term rate determined during October 2014 to take effect Nov. 1, 2014, based on daily compounding.

Revenue Ruling 2014-29 announcing the rates of interest will appear in Internal Revenue Bulletin 2014-52, dated Dec. 22, 2014.

A distribution from an Individual Retirement Account (IRA) received during 2014 and properly rolled over to another IRA will have no impact on any distributions and rollovers during 2015 involving any other IRAs owned by the same individual.

Technical details are in Announcement 2014-32.

In this new YouTube video, IRS Commissioner John Koskinen explains where you and your clients can find information on the health care law.

Watch this and other videos on the IRS YouTube Channel.

There are several ways Spanish speakers can get information about the tax provisions of the Affordable Care Act.

The Internal Revenue Service issued two items of guidance in response to the need for charitable and other relief due to the Ebola outbreak in Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone. One provides special relief intended to support leave-based donation programs to aid victims who have suffered from the Ebola outbreak in those countries. The other designates the Ebola outbreak in those countries as a qualified disaster for federal tax purposes.

As incidents of an aggressive telephone scam continue across the country, the Internal Revenue Service unveiled a new YouTube video with a renewed warning to taxpayers not to be fooled by imposters posing as tax agency representatives.

For tax year 2015, the Internal Revenue Service announced annual inflation adjustments for more than 40 tax provisions, including the tax rate schedules, and other tax changes.

Tax return preparers must renew their Preparer Tax Identification Numbers (PTINs) for 2015. All current PTINs will expire Dec. 31, 2014.