200. Talking tax ahead of busy season, with Steven Lyon

Future-Proof

Episode 200! Thanks to all the listeners here to celebrate this milestone.

In this episode we're talking about the coming tax season (never too early right?). A lot of tax headlines to discuss this episode:

• IRS announces that this coming filing season, taxpayers may be able to file most documents and returns electronically and by 2025 the IRS will digitize all paper file returns when they are received
• IRS might push for an early end to the employee retention tax credit as the number of "legitimate claims" declines
• Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration says that while the IRS has done a good job of addressing cyberthreats, it needs to do a better job with documentation
• New tech being built called IVIX, the first AI powered platform to help governments address financial crimes and tax evasion
• Tax prep companies like H&R Block and TaxSlayer have for years been sharing Americans sensitive financial data with tech giants like Meta and Google in a potential of violation of federal law

I speak with Steven Lyon, Senior Manager, Product Specialists with SafeSend to discuss all these updates and how to meet challenges as practitioners.

Resources

• Steven Lyon LinkedIn Profile
• AP News article, "IRS aims to go paperless by 2025 as part of its campaign to conquer mountains of paperwork", by Fatima Hussein
• Accounting Today article, "IRS good at addressing cyberthreats, but not documenting them" by Chris Gaetano
• IVIX website
• CNN article, "Tax prep companies shared private taxpayer data with Google and Meta for years, congressional probe finds", by Brian Fung