Mark Friedlich
- Indexed articles, last 90 days
- 5
- Latest publication
- Sep 30, 2026
- Outlet visibility, for Financial Planning
- Top 5M sites
- Earliest in this view
- Jul 9, 2026
Latest articles
If you're still filing tax returns on paper, I have bad news (opens the original)
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The Government Accountability Office recently released its review of the 2026 filing season, and the numbers confirm what many practitioners suspected while it was happening. If you or your clients relied on paper this year, the IRS made you pay for it in time. Individual paper returns took an average of 30 calendar days to process during the 2026 filing season. That is nearly double the 16 days it took in 2025, and it's more than twice the IRS's own internal target of 13 working days. This is n
The new opportunity zone era starts now (opens the original)
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Opportunity zones are now permanent. The old 2026 deadline is gone, but a new planning window is already open. Capital gains realized this year can still qualify for the permanent regime if invested under the right timing rules. IRS Notice 2026-40 supplies the bridge. Eligible capital gains realized in 2026 can still reach the permanent regime once the new program begins on Jan. 1, 2027. I covered the full transition mechanics, the state conformity traps, and the mandatory 2026 inclusion for leg
The Blanche order rewrote Trump's audit immunity (opens the original)
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On Sunday, August 2, Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche rescinded a controversial payout fund tied to a prior settlement of President Trump's lawsuit against the IRS. That will be the headline. It is not the part of the order tax professionals should be studying. Buried in the same order is a narrower, more consequential change: the tax audit immunity language from the original settlement got rewritten. The revised order clarifies that the immunity provision applies only retroactively to claim
IRS kills First Time Abate, replaced by Automatic Exemption (opens the original)
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The IRS recently announced it is phasing out First Time Abate and replacing it with a new Automatic Exemption from Penalty program, or AEP. This is not a minor procedural tweak. It changes how penalty relief gets delivered to millions of taxpayers, and it changes what we owe our clients as their advisors. AEP is a systemic, automated relief program. It is expected to begin phasing in this summer for tax year 2025 original returns and 2026 quarterly returns. Starting with returns having original
Opportunity zones just became permanent (opens the original)
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For seven years, every opportunity zone conversation carried the same warning: Hurry — the benefit ends at the close of 2026. Reinvest now or lose the deferral. That urgency drove billions into qualified opportunity funds and shaped how every practitioner advised clients. That framework is now wrong in two directions. The One Big Beautiful Bill Act made opportunity zones a recurring, permanent regime. The IRS has issued Notice 2026-40 to govern the transition. And the Dec. 31, 2026, date everyon
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