The Internal Revenue Service and the Treasury Department today announced that they have accepted a request from the National Retail Federation and Retail Industry Leaders Association for guidance under the IRS’ Industry Issue Resolution (IIR) program regarding capitalizing versus repair issues. The submission included a request to deal with 1) application of unit of property; 2) repair and remodeling expenses; and 3) rules for general maintenance and repair expenses. The IRS and the Treasury Department will work with the industry groups to develop guidance for the retail industry. The objective of the IIR program is to resolve business tax issues common to significant numbers of taxpayers through new and improved guidance. In past years, issues have been submitted by associations and others representing both small and large business taxpayers, resulting in tax guidance that has affected thousands of taxpayers. For each issue selected, an IIR team of IRS and Treasury personnel gather relevant facts from taxpayers or other interested parties affected by the issue. The goal is to recommend guidance to resolve the issue. This benefits both taxpayers and the IRS by saving time and expense that would otherwise be expended on resolving the issue through examinations. At any time, business associations and taxpayers may submit tax issues that they believe could be resolved through the IIR program to IIR@irs.gov. IIR selection criteria and submission procedures are outlined in Revenue Procedure 2003-36, available at IRS.gov.
