Tag Archive for Tax Blog

Alphabet Soup For Installment Agreements

I. What is an installment agreement? An installment agreement is an option for those who cannot pay their entire tax bills by the due date. It allows taxpayers to pay the amount due over a period of time

II. Introduction

a. Although revenue officers are instructed to request immediate payment of an outstanding liability, it will be obvious to the IRS when a taxpayer is unable to comply with such a request.

b. Deferred payments: As an alternative to enforced collection action, the IRS may be willing to defer payment. The revenue officer can grant an extension of time to pay for up to Read More

Written by | Posted in IRS

Taxes And Divorce – Part 4

Community Property

There are currently nine states that have community property laws. Every state’s specifics are slightly different, some more or less stringent then others. For the most part, from an income tax standpoint, community property laws mean that anything earned or purchased while the “community” or marriage was intact is split 50/50. This is a big issue in the disposition of property and/or business, which we will discuss later. If you are completing a return either in or for someone in a community property state you should research that state’s specific laws.

When preparing a tax return, some states require that a separately filed return have all Read More

Written by | Posted in Individual

IRS Now Accepting Simplified Form 1023-EZ For Tax Exempts

Not-for-profit organizations who wanted to be IRS-exempt have long been faced with completing Form 1023. This form is an arduous 26 pages long and the IRS estimates are that it would take as long as 16 hours just to complete the form after spending up to 7 hours learning about the form. Time spent in record keeping is estimated to be up to 100 hours. Obviously, this is not a task for the faint of heart and is a major hurdle to an organization wishing to become tax exempt. In addition, the IRS spends an inordinate amount of time processing these forms and has a backlog of 60,000 applications, which is about a nine-month backlog. Currently, the IRS states that it takes up to 21 days just to acknowledge the application.

This step is necessary for an organization to be qualified as a 501(c)(3) not-for-profit Read More

Written by | Posted in Non-Profit Tax

Corporate Tax Directors Happy To Have Access To Award-Winning Tax Provision Preparation Course

It is a huge task to create a course in tax provision preparation that is interesting and easy to understand! That is exactly what Shamen Dugger does in her on demand video course now available at TaxConnections. Recently, I shared this on-demand Video course with lead Tax Executives of Fortune 500 multinationals. I told them, “Now you can have the staff in your own tax department pull up a chair and offer them a GREAT INSTRUCTOR on Tax Provision.” They were excited about Shamen’s on-demand tax provision video because they knew they did not have the time to teach this very important and highly specialized area of corporate tax. Shamen Dugger provides a solution to corporate Tax Directors by delivering an articulate, easy to understand course on how to accurately prepare a corporate tax provision. This course has been rated the highest by the Corporate Tax Read More

Written by | Posted in TaxConnections

Australian Taxation Office Mines Data For Undisclosed Offshore Income And Assets

Information in an Australian Tax Office press release last Monday indicates that information designed to identify undeclared assets and income will be “mined” from:

• overseas tax authorities regarding Australians with offshore investments and bank accounts;
• Australian and foreign banks on fund flows, interest and account balances;
• informants about offshore accounts; and
• money transfers to and from offshore bank accounts.

In the press release, Deputy Commissioner Michael Cranston said “…the new information would be used to encourage people to disclose under Project DO IT, the Read More

Written by | Posted in Australia/Oceania

Taxpayers Rights When Audited By Tax Authorities In South Africa (Chapter 3 – 3.5.2)

Posted in sections, this is my Doctoral Thesis on taxpayers rights when audited by the tax authorities in South Africa – equally applicable to many English-based law systems in Africa and abroad (eg. India). This will be of particular use to any tax practitioners doing work in Africa and in other English-based legal systems around the world.

Analysis Of Challenging The Commissioner’s Discretionary Powers In Auditing Taxpayers under The Constitution Of The Republic of South Africa

CHAPTER 3 – LIMITATIONS TO INVOKING SECTIONS 74A AND 74B OF THE INCOME TAX ACT

3.5.2 Audi alteram partem139 Read More

Written by | Posted in Africa • Audit

Taxes And Divorce – Part 3

Alimony

Alimony or separate maintenance is a payment ordered by court decree (not an agreement unsanctioned by the court between parties)(Faylor v Comm’r T.C. Memo. 2013-143) made from one party in a divorce proceeding to the other, in order for the receiving party to maintain a standard of living. (§ Cod. Sec. 215)

We see both sides of this situation all the time, so we must be able to determine if the payments are deductible to the payer and if so they are taxable to the payee. There are several conditions that must be met in order for the tax treatment of the payments to be determined: Read More

Written by | Posted in Individual

July 4th Special Offer – For Tax Professionals Only

Now through the July 4th weekend TaxConnections has a LIMITED TIME OFFER available to tax professionals exclusively.

Register as a new member to TaxConnections Worldwide Directory of Tax Professionals today through July 4th and receive a second year membership free for a savings of $199.95. We will also provide you with a coupon for two hours of CPE Credits via Webcast through our affiliate partner CPE Link and the benefit of a full page native ad through TaxConnections.

TaxConnections July 4th Membership Special

1. Purchase Year One, Get Second Year Membership Free (Savings of $199.95) Read More

Written by | Posted in TaxConnections

3 Strategies For Getting Out Of IRS Audits

When faced with an IRS audit, an effective strategy can be the key to obtaining a favorable outcome for the taxpayer. Early in the audit process, the taxpayer or his or her qualified representative should consider the policy against repetitive examination, the IRS policy on reopening examinations, and the various statutes of limitations that apply to examination of the taxpayer’s records and books.

1. The IRS Policy Concerning Repetitive Examinations

An initial consideration is whether or not the taxpayer’s audit violates the IRS’s policy against repetitive examinations. The policy against repetitive examinations applies when the taxpayer has been audited in the past two years, and the audits resulted in essentially no change. If you are a taxpayer who has been audited once in the past two years and Read More

Written by | Posted in Audit • IRS

A Look At The IRS Annual Filing Season Program

The IRS has issued complete rules for its new voluntary Annual Filing Season Program and one must wonder “Why?” What is the IRS hoping to accomplish through this initiative and what use is this program?

It is well-known that the program is a reaction to the IRS loss in the Loving case, which struck down the mandatory preparer registration program. Many preparers jumped on the bandwagon and sought the designation “RTRP,” which was the certification provided by that program. With the demise of the program, the designation is also dead in the water. The IRS has stated that it does not recognize the RTRP designation, but will not comment on whether a professional can use the designation. They have stated that there is nothing to stop RTRP’s from displaying their certificates. Read More

Written by | Posted in Individual • Tax Education

Taxes And Divorce – Part 2

Child Custody

The second biggest topic in most divorce cases is child custody and dependent exemptions. Effective 1 Jan 2009, new rules kicked in regarding the necessary documentation for claiming the dependent exemption for a child of divorced or separated parents. Before this date a copy of the judicial decree was sufficient, however, due to the varying nature and ambiguous wording of the different jurisdictions, this was determined to be inadequate. (§ Cod. Sec. 152)

The Form 8332 (Release/Revocation of Release of Claim to Exemption for Child by Custodial Parent), or a facsimile with all the same information, is now required to be Read More

Written by | Posted in Individual

Standards For Prosecuting Tax Crimes And What They Mean For The Public

The government is not required to prosecute persons whom it believes has violated the law. Certainly, in the tax context, only a small percentage of people who are known or reasonably suspected to have committed a tax crime are investigated and prosecuted. Judgment calls abound – from the first discovery of information through prosecution.

Given the limited resources that can be applied to tax prosecutions, the government must be highly selective. The ability to “pick and choose” which cases it prosecutes is the reason why it has such a high conviction rate. The message from Uncle Sam to taxpayers is this: “Sure, we don’t prosecute all tax cheats, but if we get you in our prosecution cross-hairs, you are dead.” Read More

Written by | Posted in Tax Fraud/Evasion/Crimes
« Older Entries   Recent Entries »