IRS timetables listing anticipated release dates for guidance and other projects spurred by enactment of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017 (TCJA), published on May 30, 2019 by Tax Analysts, include items of interest to tax-exempt organizations. (See "FOIA Nets TRIO's Guidance Release Plan for Every TCJA Provision," 2019 TNT 104-4.) The "Tax Reform Enterprise Integrated Program Plan" (the Program Plan) lists the start date, expected completion date, and percent complete for TCJA guidance, based on input from the IRS operating division responsible for implementing each legislative provision. (For details, see attached Excel file.)

The program plan list includes the following information pertaining to exempt organizations.

Guidance

Soft guidance. The Service's target completion date for upcoming "soft" guidance is July 31, 2019. According to the IRS list, this guidance will take the form of written website content posted on IRS.gov and webcasts in the IRS Video Portal, which can be found at here. The IRS indicates that soft guidance addressing changes made under the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017 had been published (https://www.irs.gov/tax-reform) as of December 31, 2018.

IRS Video Portal webcasts are slated to be completed by July 31, 2019, and other soft guidance to appear on IRS.gov missed a March 31, 2019 target date, according to the list. Both projects show 0% completion.

Notice to provide penalty relief on estimated tax payments related to transportation fringe benefits for exempt organizations. The IRS list indicates that this item is 100% complete. In December 2018, the IRS published two notices addressing penalty relief on estimated tax payments:

• Notice 2018-99 provided interim guidance on qualified transportation fringe (QTF) parking expenses as disallowed deductions under Section 274(a)(4) or unrelated business taxable income (UBTI) under Section 512(a)(7). (Both provisions were added to the Code by the TCJA.) Notice 2018-99 indicates that proposed regulations will be published on (1) determining nondeductible parking expenses and other expenses for QTFs and (2) calculating increased UBTI attributable to QTFs. Until the IRS publishes regulations, taxpayers may use any reasonable method for determining the amount of nondeductible expenses under Section 274(a)(4) or the amount of the increase in UBTI under Section 512(a)(7). Taxpayers may rely on the reasonable method for allocating expenses that is provided in Notice 2018-99. (See Tax Alert 2018-2497.)
• Notice 2018-100 announced that the IRS would provide estimated tax penalty relief in 2018 to tax-exempt organizations that offered qualified transportation fringe (QTF) benefits and were not required to file a Form 990-T, Exempt Organization Business Income Tax Return, for the tax year preceding the organization's first tax year ending after December 31, 2017. (See Tax Alert 2018-2498.)

Tax products

Form 990-T. The IRS published the Form 990-T for 2018 in December 2018. (For an EY-annotated edition of the current Form 990-T, see Tax Alert 2019-0656.)

Instructions to Form 990-T. The IRS published revised Instructions for Form 990-T on its website in March 2019.

Publication 598. The IRS published a new edition of Publication 598, Tax on Unrelated Business Income of Exempt Organizations in February 2019.

IT systems

The list states that the IRS's identification of IT systems affected by the storage outage on April 17, 2018, was completed at the end of April 2018.

Employee readiness

IRM revisions. The list indicates that revisions to Internal Revenue Manual Part 7.27 (Exempt Organizations Tax Manual) were completed as of mid-October 2018.

Employee training. According to the list, the IRS deployed its TEGE employee training as of the end of November 2018, but has not uploaded the content to SharePoint as it had planned to do by December 31, 2018.

Implications

The Program Plan provides a useful summary of the status of projects the IRS began in the aftermath of the TCJA, including recent news, guidance by way of regulations, Treasury decisions, revenue procedures and rulings, notices related to tax reform, updated forms and instructions, and additional resources. Although the expected dates of completion are not binding (e.g., the March 31, 2019 listed date for soft guidance has passed and regulations under Section 512(a)(7), targeted for completion by July 31, 2019, depend on the issuance of regulations under Section 274, which are not listed in the Program Plan), they do provide some evidence of the IRS's the focus on these issues.

The Program Plan can be a useful tool to help plan for current and upcoming changes that will continue to affect exempt organizations. Specifically, the soft guidance referenced in the Program Plan will be useful for many exempt organizations as they continue to implement the provisions of the TCJA. In addition, the website and video portal will be centralized locations for all new TCJA information that the IRS releases applicable to exempt organizations.

Based upon the information contained in the Program Plan, exempt organizations are encouraged to monitor IRS.gov and the IRS Video Portal for the issuance of additional soft guidance as the target completion date of July 31, 2019 approaches.

Please contact your Ernst & Young LLP tax professional with any questions.

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RELATED RESOURCES

— For more information about EY's Exempt Organization Tax Services group, visit us at www.ey.com/ExemptOrg.

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ATTACHMENT

IRS Tax Reform Enterprise Integrated Program Plan