Tuesday, April 3, 2018

Recent developments

Estate tax update


The Rhode Island Division of Taxation recently provided an update about the Division’s Estate and Excise Tax section during a meeting of the Commission to Study the Feasibility of Modernizing Probate Law and Procedure.

“We were pleased to have been invited to attend the Commission’s meeting at Warwick City Hall and to provide Chair Peter Lewiss and Commission members with information they requested. The Commission does important work, and we want its members and all of our stakeholders to be kept current on the status of our agency and its work,” said Rhode Island Tax Administrator Neena S. Savage, Esq., who oversees the Division of Taxation.

As part of the ordinary course of business, three members of the Division’s Estate and Excise Tax section recently transferred to jobs in the private sector or elected to retire.  “We have been busy cross-training staff to help handle estate tax tasks while we seek to fill the open positions – something we do routinely,” Savage said. “As a result, there has been no gap in service. All estate tax returns and payments have been, and will continue to be, processed promptly and accurately,” she said.

The Estate Tax section is being managed on a day-to-day basis by Theriza Iafrate, chief of the Division’s Estate and Excise Tax section, which is open to the public from 8:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. business days. Contact information is as follows:


Rhode Island Division of Taxation’s Estate Tax Section
Phone number
(401) 574-8829, option # 8
Email address
Tax.Estate@tax.ri.gov
Fax number
(401) 574-8956



Hearing on regulations


The Rhode Island Division of Taxation will hold a public hearing on April 18 on a number of proposed regulations involving the personal income tax.

The Division proposes to adopt some regulations, amend some, and repeal some. Their format has been modified in accordance with the new Rhode Island Code of Regulations. Some of the proposed regulations include minor changes. These changes can be reviewed on the Rhode Island Department of State (Secretary of State) website and on the Division of Taxation’s website.

Many of the changes reflect updates in the law since the regulations were last revised or promulgated. One new update is in the W-2 Informational Returns regulation (280-RICR-20-55-9) that requires any employer receiving or applying for tax credits to electronically file its W-2 returns.

The proposed regulations are listed as follows:

Adoptions:


280-RICR-20-55-1 – Estimated Payments
280-RICR-20-55-3 – Credit for Income Taxes of Other States
280-RICR-20-55-5 – Filing Status of Spouses – Nonresident Military Personnel and Partial-Year Residents
280-RICR-20-55-7 – Trust Distributions

Amendments:


280-RICR-20-55-2 - Extension of Time to File
280-RICR-20-55-4 – Tax Preparer Penalties
280-RICR-20-55-6 – Fiscal Year Taxpayers’ Method of Computing Rhode Island Tax
280-RICR-20-55-8 – Lottery and Pari-Mutuel Winnings and Prizes
280-RICR-20-55-9 – W-2 Informational Returns
280-RICR-20-55-10 – Employers’ Withholding
280-RICR-20-55-11 – Taxation of Nonresident Professional Athletes
280-RICR-20-55-12 – Net Operating Loss Limitation

Repeals:


Personal Income Tax – Estimated Payments (ERLID 630)
Personal Income Tax – Underpayment of Estimated Tax Charges – Exceptions and Waiver (ERLID 628)
Personal Income Tax – Credit for Income Taxes of Other States (ERLID 739)
Out of State Credit – Double Resident (ERLID 2347)
Personal Income Tax – Rhode Island Filing States – Nonresident Military Personnel and His/Her Spouse (ERLID 638)
Personal Income Tax – Filing Status of Husband and Wife Where One Is a Partial-Year Resident (ERLID 650)
Personal Income Tax – Trust Distributions (ERLID 657)
Personal Income Tax – Beneficiaries’ Treatment of Accumulation Distribution by Trust (ERLID 714)
Personal Income Tax – Family Education Accounts – Taxpayers (ERLID 635)
Personal Income Tax – Family Education Accounts – Qualified Depositories (ERLID 636)
Personal Income Tax – Use of Substitute Rhode Island Blank Income Tax Forms (ERLID 730)
Personal Income Tax – Tax Liability Computed by Internal Revenue Service (ERLID 646)

The hearing is to take place at 9:30 a.m. on Wednesday, April 18, 2018, at the Department of Administration Building at One Capitol Hill, Providence, Rhode Island, diagonally across Smith Street from the State House.

The Division of Taxation has filed numerous proposed and final regulations of late, and will continue to do so as part of its months-long effort to streamline and re-codify its regulations. The Division intends to post from time to time, on this blog, brief descriptions of some -- but not all -- of the regulatory filings. However, all of the regulatory filings are available to view and to monitor at the Department of State (Secretary of State) website.