Overview
Treasury, IRS Issue Interim Guidance on Changes to Transportation Fringe Benefits: Treasury and the IRS issued interim guidance on changes to the taxation of qualified transportation fringe (QTF) benefits, including parking allowances, enacted by the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA). The TCJA generally disallowed a deduction for expenses for QTF benefits provided by taxpayers to their employees, effective for amounts paid or incurred after December 31, 2017. The TCJA further provided that a tax-exempt organization’s unrelated business taxable income (UBTI) is increased by the amount of a QTF expense that is nondeductible. Notice 2018-99 provides interim guidance for taxpayers to determine the amount of parking expenses for QTFs that is nondeductible or must be added to UBTI. Notice 2018-100 provides a waiver of additions to tax for tax-exempt employers to the extent that they underpay their estimated income tax due to the changes to the tax treatment of QTFs.
ECOFIN Releases Report on EU Tax Developments: The European Union’s Economic and Financial Affairs Council (ECOFIN) released a report to the European Council on tax issues. The report provides an overview of the progress achieved in ECOFIN during the past six months, as well as an overview of the state of play of the most important dossiers under negotiations in the area of taxation.