Emailing an unprotected return; Sec. 899; IRMMA tactics; and other highlights from our favorite tax bloggers.

Making choices

• Taxable Talk (http://www.taxabletalk.com/): Just send that return for all to see: Missouri has joined New Jersey in the blogger’s hall of shame for encouraging identity theft.
• HBK (https://hbkcpa.com/insights/): How manufacturing clients can survive the tariffs extravaganza.
• Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy (https://itep.org/category/blog/): As the D.C. region heads toward a likely recession, local policymakers will need to look to new revenue sources to help lessen the pain. Why lawmakers ought to adopt a simple reform that would raise revenue and make the District’s business tax system fairer.
• Withum (https://www.withum.com/resources/): What to remind them about the mega backdoor Roth.
• Virginia – U.S. Tax Talk: (https://us-tax.org/about-this-us-tax-blog/): OBBBA won’t be so beautiful for foreign persons if IRC Section 899 becomes reality.
• Tax Vox (https://www.taxpolicycenter.org/taxvox): OBBBA does little to increase access to paid family leave but just tweaks a little-known and largely ineffective tax credit, doubling down on access through optional private insurance policies; this leaves workers with their employers’ choices. How, luckily, lawmakers have other choices.
• Current Federal Tax Developments (https://www.currentfederaltaxdevelopments.com/): The Tax Court’s recent Kramarenko v. Commissioner opinion “provides a crucial analysis for tax professionals concerning the interpretation and application of tax treaty provisions,” particularly those related to exemptions for students, trainees and researchers. 
• The Sales Tax People (https://sales.tax/expert-articles/): Why isn’t sales tax just included in the purchase price of items?
• Taxnotes (https://www.taxnotes.com/procedurally-taxing): Guest blogger Sherrill L. Trovato wonders how difficult the Tax Court exam for non-attorneys should be.
• Yeo & Yeo (https://www.yeoandyeo.com/resources): A look at GASB Statement No. 101, “Compensated Absences,” now effective for fiscal years ending June 30, 2025, and subject to audit. 

Games of risk

And counting

• The National Association of Tax Professionals (https://blog.natptax.com/): This week’s “You Make the Call” looks at Edna and Stacy, who each contributed $100 cash to a new LLC taxed as a partnership, Counting Cowgirls. Each has a 50% interest in the LLC, which immediately obtained an $800 loan to purchase a laser printer, qualifying for $320 of bonus depreciation. Can Edna and Stacy deduct this loss against their outside basis, or is the loss suspended?
• U of I Tax School (https://taxschool.illinois.edu/blog/): How to help older clients prep for the dreaded IRMMA on Medicare premiums.
• Berkowitz Pollack Brant (https://www.bpbcpa.com/articles-press-releases/): What to remind biz clients about preparing for hurricane season.
• Eide Bailly (https://www.eidebailly.com/taxblog): West Virginia Senator Robert Byrd, “a lion of the Senate from a different era of politics,” died in office 15 years ago, but his legacy lives on in the “Byrd Rule,” which, on one level, “is why the tax legislation is happening in the first place.”

Enjoy complimentary access to top ideas and insights — selected by our editors.

Lee Iacocca, the legendary former Chrysler chairman, once said, “The speed of the leader is the speed of the team.” That’s great when you have a strong, decisive CEO. But many times in professional services firms — and in our own lives — we spend a lot of time talking about doing something, but don’t actually do it. Why? Because we’re still deciding.

Take exercising. When you commit to going to the gym on a specific day and time, there are no more decisions to be made. You’ve made a commitment to doing your workout. You don’t need any more information. There is no more analysis to do. You just go do it.  

Applying this logic to an accounting firm, however, it’s not always so simple. As accounting firm leaders, we’re often not progressing as fast as we’d like to because we’re surrounded by change. Change can be scary and overwhelming. Clients are demanding more of us. Competition for clients is getting tougher. Competition for talent is getting tougher. (For more on leaning into a constantly changing world, see my article Becoming an anti-fragile CPA.)

As highly analytical people, we tend to sit around and discuss potential solutions, but we don’t actually make a decision, let alone take the next step. And that means we’re still stuck in neutral. 

By the  way, making a decision to do nothing is still a decision. 

Three-speed framework for better decision-making

To help break through inertia and “analysis paralysis” I like to use a three-D framework called Delegate, Decide and Delay. 

Let’s take them one at a time.

1. Delegate a decision when it comes to something relatively minor that doesn’t need your personal stamp of approval — for instance, buying a new scanner for the office or planning a social media campaign.  If you’re a firm leader, not everything needs to fall on you. Delegating lower-level, first-speed decisions effectively frees up your time and mental energy for higher-value decisions. It also builds leadership depth when other people in the firm are now empowered to make decisions. I’ve found a good rule of thumb is to delegate decisions that are not irrevocable, which allow you to change directions and which don’t directly impact client experience or client outcomes. If you want to quantify it, delegate decisions in which the downside risk is less than 10% of the value of that decision. 

For more about delegating decisions, see my column Do you know where your firm’s waterline is?

2. Decide is the second option in the decision-making framework. Decide when something is in your lane, when it’s important to the firm, and when you don’t need more information in order to make an informed decision. It could be “deciding” to let a problem client go or changing your pricing structure. 

A good rule of thumb is to make a second-speed decision when you have at least 70% of the information you think you need. This will build momentum. There’s no sense waiting until you get 100% of the information, because things are constantly changing, and you’ll never be 100% certain.

3. Delay (with a deadline) comes into play when you’re mulling over decisions that will have profound implications for your firm, team and clients. Again, delaying is not procrastinating, it’s about setting a deadline to make a well-considered decision about a big-ticket item such as a potential transaction with private equity, or rebranding the firm, or opening a new office. These are important third-speed decisions that can’t be delegated or decided on the spot.

Again, delaying is not procrastinating. By delaying (with a firm deadline), you’re setting up a realistic timeframe to gather the information you need to make a confident Go/No-Go by a predetermined date. Without setting a firm deadline to take action, you risk spinning your wheels indefinitely. If you can’t get all the information you need by the deadline you’ve set, then you need to punt for a longer period of time and set a new, but realistic deadline for making your Go/No-Go decision.

Putting 3Ds into practice

Go into a conference room with a whiteboard and ask your team: “What are all the things we’ve been kicking around forever?” It could be a client portal, or new pricing, or right sizing your business, or using AI for research. Apply the three Ds (Delegate, Decide, Delay) to each issue and you’ll be surprised by how quickly it helps you accelerate your decision making.

Don’t overthink it, just get started.

What is your firm doing to improve its decision making? I’d love to hear more.

(Disclaimer: The author receives no compensation or promotional consideration for products and services mentioned in this article.)

Top 10 firm RSM announced a $1 billion technology investment over the next three years to expand its AI strategy and offerings, particularly where it concerns semi-autonomous agents. 

“AI continues to be a strategic imperative for RSM, and our significant investment enables us to move decisively from exploration to execution, driving real outcomes for our people and our clients through responsible, business-led solutions,” said Brian Becker, managing partner and CEO with RSM US LLP. “We’re not simply adopting new technologies—we’re transforming how we deliver value, combining deeper insights, greater agility and an unwavering focus on quality and impact.” 

Specifically, the investment will be devoted towards integrating agentic AI platforms across RSM’s operations and services. More specifically, it will involve developing and investing in industry-specific AI tools and talent, and pursuing strategic ventures to build scalable AI frameworks and infrastructure; fully integrating agentic AI into RSM’s assurance, tax and consulting services; empowering RSM talent with agentic AI tools to heighten productivity and professional growth; and expanding agentic AI-driven solutions throughout the client lifecycle to elevate the overall client experience.

This is part of RSM’s overall agentic AI strategy, which centers on developing “AI flows,” described as purpose-built workflows that enable RSM professionals to leverage and optimize AI agents and generative AI capabilities. These AI flows are meant to seamlessly integrate into existing workflows. 

“RSM is leading the charge in digital transformation, and agentic AI is central to our strategy,” said Sergio de la Fe, enterprise digital leader and partner with RSM US LLP. “Our $1 billion investment is fueling groundbreaking innovation to empower our talent and clients to achieve unprecedented performance. This commitment to our digital first strategy reflects a sustained journey that will continue to evolve well beyond this initial investment as we drive market-leading solutions and redefine how the middle market navigates the future.”

The news comes as large firms announce their intention to make major investments in AI technology, especially agents. Just a few weeks ago, for example, BDO, another top 10 firm, announced its own plans to invest $1 billion in AI solutions. The initiative, which will take place over five years, will involve weaving AI assistants throughout its different service lines, among other things.