Current Federal Tax Developments

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IRS to Stop Accepting Checks for $100 Million or Greater

In Announcement 2015-36 the IRS told taxpayers who write extremely large checks that they will need to change their ways.  Beginning January 1, 2016 the IRS will reject any check the agency receives for $100 million or more.

The IRS is taking this step in response to a notice from the U.S. Treasury’s Bureau of Fiscal Service that, since the Federal Reserve will not process a check in excess of $99,999,999 federal agencies should not accept such checks.  The agency discourages such checks because of the heightened risk of fraud and the fact that these checks have to be manually handled.

Obviously there are a limited number of individuals who write such checks.  The IRS noted that they had received 14 such checks during the past tax season.  These taxpayers will either need to send in two or more checks or use Fed Wire to make these payments.