As published in the Winter Park/Maitland Observer, Thursday Jan. 3, 2012 Edition Offers... Read More »
IRS Lawyer Ethics
From Paul Caron: Kwon: Four Difficult Ethical Questions for IRS Lawyers Michelle Kwon (Texas Tech), The Tax Man’s Ethics: Four of the Hardest Ethical Questions for an IRS Lawyer, 9 Cardozo Pub. L. Pol’y & Ethics J. 371 (2011): The article explores the disagreement, particularly among academics, about whether government lawyers have greater obligations to…
Read Full Article Categorized in: Court Cases, IRS ProcedureIRS Audit’s Google
I just googled “IRS audit of Google” and found this blog post by Paul Caron: Bloomberg, Google Tax Probe to Focus on Offshore Units, by Jesse Drucker: The IRS is auditing how Google avoided federal income taxes by shifting profit into offshore subsidiaries, according to a person with knowledge of the matter. The agency is…
Read Full Article Categorized in: Announcements, International Taxation, IRS AuditsIRS Use of Tax Liens Often Violates its Stated Mission
Paul Caron discusses Danshera Cords’ Brandeis Law Review article Lien on Me: Virtual Debtors Prisons, The Practical Effects of Tax Liens and Proposals for Reform, 49 Brandeis L.J. 341 (2011): This Article discusses the harm that a notice of federal tax lien can cause an individual as a result of the effect of filing a notice of…
Read Full Article Categorized in: IRS Liens and Levies, IRS Procedure, Taxpayer RightsCompensation of S Corporation Shareholders
Tony Nitti has published a great piece over at The Tax Adviser which explains the current state of affairs on the issue of compensation of S Corporation shareholders. Here is the Executive Summary, but read the whole thing. S corporation shareholders generally prefer dividend distributions of their S corporations’ profits over compensation payments from the…
Read Full Article Categorized in: S Corporations, Tax TipsNearly 40% of IRS Seizures are Illegal
This doesn’t come as a surprise to me, but it’s still disturbing. The Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration has released its Fiscal Year 2011 Review of Compliance With Legal Guidelines When Conducting Seizures of Taxpayers’ Property (2011-30-049). It found that the IRS failed to follow the law in 38% of all seizures. In conducting its statutory…
Read Full Article Categorized in: IRS Procedure, News, Taxpayer RightsLap Dances Not Art, Subject to NY Sales Tax
From Paul Caron by way of the Albany Times-Union tells us that the New York Supreme Court has ruled that Lap Dances Aren’t Tax-Exempt: While a lap dance might prompt a strong reaction from an audience, it doesn’t rise to the level of art — at least according to a state appellate court. Thursday’s ruling said entertainers at a local…
Read Full Article Categorized in: News, State TaxesInnocent Spouse Writes Memoir of IRS Experience
When Carol Ross Joynt’s husband died she was consumed by grief. Then she learned that her husband owed $3,000,000 to the IRS and was now pursuing her for it. The experience was so traumatic she wrote a book about it and titled it Innocent Spouse: A Memoir. Here’s a short synopsis: Carol Ross Joynt was a successful television…
Read Full Article Categorized in: Innocent Spouse ReliefInnocent Spouse Writes Memoir About Tax Experience
When Carol Ross Joynt’s husband died she was consumed by grief. Then she learned that her husband owed $3,000,000 to the IRS and was now pursuing her for it. The experience was so traumatic she wrote a book about it and titled it Innocent Spouse: A Memoir. Here’s a short synopsis: Carol Ross Joynt was a successful television…
Read Full Article Categorized in: Blog PostsTenth Circuit Rules that Statute of Limitations for Basis Overstatements is 6, not 3, Years
The saga over what is the correct statute of limitations for basis overstatements continues. Paul Caron reports: The Tenth Circuit yesterday reversed the Tax Court and held that Reg. § 301.6501(e)-1 is entitled to Chevron deference and concluded that overstated asset basis triggers the six-year statute of limitations. Salman Ranch Ltd. v. Commissioner, No. 09-9015 (10th Cir.…
Read Full Article Categorized in: Court Cases, IRS Audits, Statutes of LimitationIRS Bracketology and Tax Madness
Syracuse tax professor Robert Nassau has published in PDF a cool NCAA-like bracket of IRS concepts. Check it out. I must take mild exception, however, to his claim that this is the first ever bracket of tax sections. Here’s a blog post I published in 2009: TAX MADNESS All Time Greatest Code…
Read Full Article Categorized in: Opinion, PollsTIGTA: IRS Issues More Erroneous Tax Refunds
For the love of common sense and decency can we please stop the waste and fraud before we demand that law-abiding citizens pay more taxes? From Paul Caron, here’s the latest depressing news from TIGTA about how the IRS isn’t doing its job: The Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration today released Individuals Received Millions of Dollars in…
Read Full Article Categorized in: Credits, News, Tax CrimesHuh? IRS Caller Assistance at 90% Accuracy Rate?
File this post in the “yeah, right” department. The Government Accountability Office (GAO) today released a report titled 2010 Tax Filing Season: IRS’s Performance Improved in Some Key Areas, but Efficiency Gains Are Possible in Others in which it says that IRS taxpayer assistance personnel correctly answer taxpayers’ questions a whopping 90% of the time. Compared to 2009, the…
Read Full Article Categorized in: IRS ProcedureSwiss Tax Man Threatens to Kill Puppies if Tax isn’t Paid
I’d like to see them try this in my neighborhood. From Paul Caron: Time Magazine, Swiss Village to Dog Owners: Pay Your Taxes, or Poochie Dies: The taxman has never been a popular figure anywhere. But in the tiny Swiss village of Reconvilier, that functionary has assumed the even more detestable profile as the guy…
Read Full Article Categorized in: News15% of Government Contractors Don’t Comply with the Tax Laws
According to the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration 15% of government contractors are not in compliance with the federal tax laws. Federal Guidelines Do Not Prohibit the Awarding of Contracts to Contractors With Delinquent Tax Liabilities (2010-30-120): The IRS does not annually verify that government contractors have paid Federal taxes, despite a presidential directive that…
Read Full Article Categorized in: News1941 Tax Rates
Believe it or not, there are a lot of Americans who want us to return to the good old days of confiscatory tax rates. From Paul Caron, here is a list of the top income earners in 1941 and the taxes they paid: Joseph Stalin would have thought these tax rates excessive.
Read Full Article Categorized in: Tax Policy