Today is day 34 of the U.S. partial government shutdown. Here is our position regarding the situation without addressing the silly politics.
There have been two other shutdowns in the most recent history of the CWA Dept. Both times, the IRS issued CWAs after the government reopened. However, this is the first time the CWA Dept. has been closed for this length of time.
We believe 100% of the CWA applications we have sent in to the IRS would have been approved and issued by the IRS.
We believe the IRS should retroactively honor those applications and allow the CWAs to be deemed as “in force.” The IRS could – and should – require stronger information at the end of the tours for those retroactive CWAs. There is no policy in the CWA Dept manual that prohibits retroactive CWAs in a situation like this.
We believe that if venues choose to withhold 30% – and we certainly hope they will not – the venues should NOT deposit those funds with the IRS. They should hold the funds until the IRS creates policy on the situation.
We hope the IRS will do the right thing and honor the CWAs with the artists/athletes/taxpayers. They have no reason to punish these artists/athletes/taxpayers. Additonally, they have no reason to punish the venues by requiring large amounts of paperwork that would be unnecessary if the CWAs were deemed “in force.”
Frank Page CPA, President/CEO
Cecile Glunt, EA, Director of Government Relations, Former IRS CWA Program Manager
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