As published in the Winter Park/Maitland Observer, Thursday Jan. 3, 2012 Edition Offers... Read More »
Articles from June 2011
Tax Reforms for Islamic Finance?
From Paul Caron: Brett Freudenberg & Mahmood Nathie (both of Griffith Business School) have published The Constitution and Islam: Are Tax Reforms Possible to Facilitate Islamic Finance?, 20 Revenue L.J. 1 (2011). Here is the abstract: Islamic banking and finance is emerging in global financial markets and governments seek to facilitate it. This article focuses on whether…
Read Full Article Categorized in: International Taxation, Tax PolicyBut We Need More Auditors
Joe Kristan tells of the case of Estate of Louise Paxton Gallagher, T.C. Memo. 2011-148 where the Tax Court made a valuation ruling more favorable to the taxpayer than what it had originally claimed on its tax return: The executor files an estate tax return valuing a 15% interest in an LLC at $34,936,000. The IRS audits the…
Read Full Article Categorized in: Court Cases, Estate Tax, IRS ProcedureThe Invisible Tax Increase
Let’s face it, no politician wants to be seen as a tax raiser, especially in an election year. But that doesn’t change the fact that many politicians, in their hearts of hearts, believe that taxes should be raised. What to do? Well, according to Chris Edwards of the Cato Institute some tax-and-spenders have found a way they can raise…
Read Full Article Categorized in: Tax PolicySenate Finance Chairman Max Baucus Wants to Simplify the Tax Code & Close the Tax Gap
“It’s deja vu all over again.” – Yogi Berra – Max Baucus (D-MT), Chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, said today that he wants to simplify the tax code to increase compliance rates and thereby close the tax gap. Here’s the press release (emphasis is mine): … Baucus said that as the tax reform process moves forward, it…
Read Full Article Categorized in: Announcements, Legislative Watch, News, Tax PolicySenate Holds Hearing on Tax Complexity and Closing the Tax Gap
The Senate Committee on Finance is holding a hearing today in the Dirksen Building on Complexity and the Tax Gap: Making Tax Compliance Easier and Collecting What’s Due. I am watching it live now and will report on it later. I know, I know. You’re envious of my life.
Read Full Article Categorized in: IRS Procedure, Legislative Watch, Tax CollectionsA Defense of Pass Through Entities
Paul Caron reports that Bradley T. Borden (Brooklyn) has posted a defense of pass-through entities in Three Cheers for Passthrough Taxation, 131 Tax Notes 1353 (June 27, 2011), on SSRN. Here’s the abstract: This report addresses recent suggestions by the Obama administration, lawmakers, and others that some passthrough entities should be taxed as corporations. It argues…
Read Full Article Categorized in: C Corporations, S Corporations, Tax PolicyJustices Behaving Badly
What a relief it is that the legal profession has a surplus of public goodwill it can use to weather this latest embarrassment. CBS reports that a Wisconsin Supreme Court Justice has accused one of her colleagues of choking her: Wisconsin Supreme Court justice Ann Walsh Bradley says Justice David Prosser choked her during an argument in her office earlier this month – a…
Read Full Article Categorized in: NewsThe Amish Can’t Electronically File Because the Amish Don’t Believe in Electronics, Amish Website Says
“Amish homes do not draw power from the electrical grid. They feel that that would excessively connect them to the world.” - Beliefs of the Amish, Religious Tolerance Website - By all accounts the Amish are a peace loving, amiable people. I have no quarrel with them or their austere lifestyle. But now it appears that…
Read Full Article Categorized in: International Taxation, News, Payroll TaxesWhere Your Tax Money Goes: Ohio Toll Collector Paid $103,150
“Today, Ohio has the 7th highest state and local combined tax burden in the nation with taxes consuming 10.4 percent of the state’s income.” – Scott Hodge, Tax Policy Blog – Jim Fedako of the Mises Institute writes about what he calls the Exploitation Theory in Reverse: According to the Buckeye Institute, the highest paid Ohio Turnpike…
Read Full Article Categorized in: State TaxesOffer in Compromise Questionnaire
Offers in Compromise (IRS settlements) are very difficult to get, but the IRS does grant them. I put together this short questionnaire for taxpayers to use to determine whether or not they qualify for an IRS settlement. Form 656 is the Offer in Compromise form. On it’s face the form seems simple enough, but if you read…
Read Full Article Categorized in: Offers in CompromiseFederal Sentencing Guidelines
For certain categories of offenses and offenders, the guidelines permit the court to impose either imprisonment or some other sanction or combination of sanctions. In determining the type of sentence to impose, the sentencing judge should consider the nature and seriousness of the conduct, the statutory purposes of sentencing, and the pertinent offender characteristics. A…
Read Full Article Categorized in: Tax CrimesA Tax on Dumb People?
Kay Bell says that Scott Adams, the creator of the comic strip Dilbert, wants to impose a tax on stupidity: “I’m just curious as to whether tax policy could make a huge difference in the effectiveness of society by directly taxing stupidity,” Adams wrote on his blog. “Suppose science is applied to the task of…
Read Full Article Categorized in: Tax HumorTax Shocker of the Week: Tax Increases Drive Jobs Away in Illinois
File this one under the category “Ya think?” Joseph Henchman of Tax Policy Blog writes in Illinois Legislators Hint that Tax Increases are Driving Away Jobs: In January, Illinois legislators approved raising their individual income tax rate from 3% to 5%, and raised the corporate income tax rate from 7.3% to 9.5%, retroactive to January…
Read Full Article Categorized in: State Taxes, Tax PolicyAre Tax Professionals Worthless?
My friend and fellow tax blogger Knox Marlow in a recent post titled Get a Real Job says that tax professionals have no “real” value to society: What value do tax professionals add to the “commercial matrix” of development, finance, production and marketing? The answer may bruise the egos of practitioners and academics from both sides of the political spectrum. The…
Read Full Article Categorized in: Opinion, Regulation of Tax Preparers, Tax PolicyEconomic Substance Doctrine
Amanda Yoder, a 3L at University of Missouri Law School and an editor of its Law Review, has written a thorough piece on the economic substance doctrine¹ titled One Prong, Two Prong, Many Prongs: A Look Into the Economic Substance Doctrine. Ms. Yoder discusses the two approaches the courts have traditionally used in economic substance doctrine cases and…
Read Full Article Categorized in: Court Cases, Deductible Expenses