According to blockchain data company Chainalysis, cryptocurrency transactions associated with illegal activity topped $14 billion in 2021. That’s almost double 2020 numbers — and the momentum shows no signs of slowing. In addition to outright cryptocurrency theft, these crimes include investment fraud and ransomware scams that affect businesses.

Tax rules on services can be tricky. When it comes to technology services it gets much trickier. Add in remote service, and the head starts to spin. One area that is especially complex is help supply services. Help supply services are defined as “providing temporary or continuing help where the help supplied is on the payroll of the supplying person or entity, but is under the supervision of the individual or business to which help is furnished.”1 PA Code Section 60.4 (b) states that the service is taxed if delivery or use occurs within Pennsylvania. “Delivery” is defined as when the employee reports to a location within the commonwealth, and “use” is defined as an employee performing work at a location within Pennsylvania.

If you save for retirement through a 401(k) plan, you may have noticed changes to it over the years — for example, automatic increases in your contributions and “catch-up” amounts for the over-50 crowd.

CFOs who exert influence and lead their organizations to quickly let go of lower-performing legacy business lines are more likely to add value to their companies' bottom lines. Gartner data shows that finance chiefs who exhibit "capital responsiveness" — acting fast to shift money toward more productive investments — can add up to 2.5 percentage points of economic value.

Do you want to withdraw cash from your closely held corporation at a minimum tax cost? The simplest way is to distribute cash as a dividend. However, a dividend distribution isn’t tax-efficient since it’s taxable to you to the extent of your corporation’s “earnings and profits.” It’s also not deductible by the corporation.

Next week, hopeful taxpayers will begin checking bank accounts for tax refunds. Tax season opened on Jan. 24, and the IRS says most taxpayers who file a tax return with no issues should expect a refund within 21 days if they file electronically and choose direct deposit.

The Internal Revenue Service said Wednesday it is suspending more than a dozen automated letters it sends out to taxpayers, including collection notices, balance due notices and unfiled tax return notices, after coming under pressure from lawmakers and tax professionals to first catch up on its backlog of unprocessed returns.

The IRS reversed course Monday on earlier plans to require taxpayers to authenticate their identities with a nongovernmental facial-recognition service to use certain online services.

In a news release, the IRS announced it will "transition away from using a third-party service for facial recognition to help authenticate people creating new online accounts." The authentication method is already in use for some interactions and optionally for taxpayers creating or using online accounts and other services. In November, the IRS announced that a new account and sign-in process would be mandatory starting sometime in summer 2022.

The Internal Revenue Service is temporarily re-assigning 1,200 employees to the frontlines of a challenging 2022 tax season to deal with a daunting backlog of last year’s paper returns and mail from taxpayers.