Accounting
Struggles ahead for the IRS
The Internal Revenue Service is facing a busy and uncertain future, with major staffing cuts, a decrease in funding, and turnover — including a veritable revolving door of acting commissioners, as
Ian Comisky, a partner at law firm Fox Rothschild LLP, believes the IRS “is not operating properly” and is being “taken apart.”
Comisky, who specializes in civil and criminal tax litigation, anticipates growing and continued chaos. The IRS is currently at least 20% understaffed, and that will only grow as cuts continue, he predicted. The agency was given more money in the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 to improve its efficiency, but of that a huge amount was clawed back. Of the amount designated, cuts were made across the board, affecting enforcement, operations, modernization and taxpayer support services.
“The latest studies show that mostly enforcement dollars were reduced, and in the last go-round modernization resources were also cut,” said Comisky. “There was a voluntary reduction in force last month. Criminal agents that could help deal with noncompliance have been sent to the border. Some say we could lose as much as $1.6 trillion in revenue, although one view is that we can get enough from tariffs to make it all up.”
The current situation is that there are not enough resources for audits necessary to keep the system honest, while modernization is not being pursued.
There has also been a tremendous brain drain, according to Comisky: “The people that are left are less experienced. The appeals unit is reluctant to settle cases for fear of criticism. If they cut enforcement without modernizing, the agency can’t operate effectively.”
The reality is that cuts are being made across the board, according to Kelly Myers, a 30-year IRS veteran who now heads up Myers Consulting Group LLC.
“The cuts are not restricted by job or by office or to overhead-type individuals,” he said. “And not to outreach folks or compliance staff. It’s everybody. There will have to be a transition to a balance between how they execute their priority mission with the people they will have. Response times will be longer because they simply have fewer people. Filed returns with no exception on the return should come out OK. But if there is an exception, someone has to look at it and that will take longer to resolve. For example, 16 weeks will become 20 weeks. Likewise, amended returns have to be manually processed.”
Is this all by design? The effect has not been anticipated, according to Comisky. “The smartest, and those who can work elsewhere, are leaving now,” he explained. “Some of the big law firms believe that there will be no tax litigation for the next couple of years. Some are predicting that the feds will get the benefit of state audits. The sense is, if there is no enforcement, school’s out!”
Intuitively, Myers said he expects that all this means revenue will be down, but he’s not sure how much it will be down. “I’ve had exams that have been closed, shut down because of lack of staff. There are things the IRS would have asked questions about at an earlier time, which would have clarified issues, but they’re not asking questions anymore.”
“When there is less coverage, noncompliance will increase, since no one is looking over your shoulder,” he added. “Some things will not get done. As a former commissioner said some years ago, they won’t do more with less resources, they’ll do less with less resources.”
If financial advisors ask clients the rate of return for their rental real estate investment property, they should expect to hear a number at least 5 percentage points higher than the actual one, according to the founder of The Real Estate Whisperer Financial Planning.
That’s because of calculations based on “optimistic assumptions, untracked costs and the absence of formal benchmarking” among many owners, said
“It’s where ownership bias meets the reality of returns,” Arzaga added. “Whatever they say, knock out at least 5%.”
Despite the substantial role of
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A void in the profession?
Instead, more planners should maximize their value to clients by taking them through a realistic cash-flow estimate incorporating every expense that they can then apply to a long-term forecast of their assets in retirement, Arzaga said. Even for high net worth clients in particular who generate tens of thousands of dollars in rental income each year, the risks and costs of a property that isn’t meeting their investment expectations can eat up their holdings over time.
“I want to propose that this is an idea that you can use that will expand your thinking about the way we approach this business,” Arzaga said. “I think the way we approach it now is great, but I still don’t see it in any of the curriculum — whether it be the licensing certifications, none of the designations — none of them focus directly on real estate investments.”
Arzaga shared the case study of two 58-year-old clients from San Francisco he called Kevin and Lynn who had a net worth of $3.6 million and rental income of $75,000 per year through a property that was separate from their residence. Through debt service payments and other expenses, however, their costs on the property amounted to $76,000. If the couple followed through on their plan to retire when they turned 65 while keeping the same quality of life that cost them $312,000 a year, they would run out of their assets by age 84, Arzaga estimated.
“Somebody with a $3.6 million net worth, this is kind of not what they expect, right?” he said. “So that’s why they come to us. And luckily, they came to us.”
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A better course of action
If the couple were to sell the property in a tax-advantaged 1031 exchange for a better-performing asset or simply spin off their rental holding, absorb the taxes and reinvest the holdings into their long-term portfolio strategy, their assets could amass value hundreds of thousands of dollars or even millions higher than their current scenario.
One of the main misunderstandings stems from the cost of maintaining rental properties, according to Arzaga. In his example, the clients mentioned their amount of income and told him that the number included their expenses. He saw that they had miscalculated when he examined their itemized deductions on Schedule A of their tax returns.
Operating expenses include taxes and the preparation of them, insurance premiums, legal fees related to entity filings and other matters and two major areas — maintenance reserves and property management. In terms of maintenance, the owners should build in costs of about $30,000 to $40,000 every decade for concrete, foundation work, a roof replacement or similar upkeep, Arzaga said. Property management poses difficulty as well.
“Most people like to do that on their own. Most people aren’t capable of that,” he said. “It’s important, and it’s a big asset. And some decisions they’re making are because they’re not professionals in this area.”
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Providing value outside investment portfolios
These realities may be tough for the clients to hear, but they usually come around after planners lay out the cold calculation of the costs and risks involved with a lot of small-scale rental properties. Assisting clients in making smarter choices about their real estate is “more significant than beating the S&P 500” and a “much more noble cause,” Arzaga said.
“Understanding how real estate can impact a family’s finances, I think, is essential to being a comprehensive advisor,” he said. “You’ve got to be comfortable talking about these things. You don’t have to be an expert, but addressing them, to do a service for your clients.
Joel Cooperman, cofounder and former CEO of Citrin Cooperman, left the firm on March 31 after over 40 years.
Cooperman founded the firm, alongside Niles Citrin, in 1979 when two English rock bands provided the seed money needed to open shop in a small New York apartment. Now, the Top 25 Firm reports over $870 million in revenue, with 27 offices, 455 partners and 3,190 employees.
“I can assure you that Niles Citrin and I never had any plans to build a firm larger than the two of us and maybe a couple of others,” Cooperman said in a statement. “In the early years, accounting was still viewed primarily as a profession and not as a full business – this never really made sense to me. We felt that for long-term success it was critical to create a culture and environment that our partners and employees would enjoy as we all worked to build a thriving sustainable business.”
Citrin Cooperman
Citrin Cooperman was one of the first instances of a major accounting firm
Cooperman offered advice to those early in their career: “I have always been surprised that so many people do not really understand how much they have to offer, how much potential they have. If I could offer any advice, it would be to figure out what you are good at and what you love to do, make a plan, write it down, and then go after it every day.”
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