The Road Map to Transparency??

First drafts of form UTP have been release by the IRS for the 2010 tax year.

IRS Commissioner Douglas Shulman announced in January 2010 the requirement to file this new form stating...

" The IRS is taking a major step towards transparency that I want to announce today related to changes we are proposing to reporting requirements regarding business taxpayers' uncertain tax positions."

Corporations with assets exceeding $10 million will be required to file this new form.  Essentially this new form requires taxpayers to disclose uncertain tax positions on their tax return, describe the position taken and disclose the amount of tax involved in the reporting position.  Essentially, the IRS is asking taxpayers to provide an annotated road map to the issues they should review upon examination.  As you might imagine there has been a wide range of responses to this requirement from taxpayers and tax professionals...need I say more.

The new reporting requirement is currently confined to certain corporations with assets above the $10 million mark.  Partnerships and S corporations should expect that similar requirements will be imposed upon them once the IRS has worked out the wrinkles with corporations.

Are you ready?