Tag Archive for Tax Blog

The Smartest Decision Tax Professionals Make In Marketing Tax Services – Going Native!

Earlier this year, our management team went to a fantastic conference on how to drive traffic. World class experts taught us quite a bit about driving high traffic! We spent thousands of dollars to learn these techniques, and now we want to turn around and share them with you. If you want more business, if you want to be approached about more tax jobs, if you want to build a great tax reputation, listen to what we teach you at TaxConnections. You must take action though as the changes are coming fast; you must move quickly to adapt or you will be left behind. What I am about to explain to you today is one of the techniques we learned at the conference that drives more traffic to your tax services and tax reputation – the native way.

The traffic experts taught us about banner blindness which basically means people are Read More

Written by | Posted in TaxConnections

7 Habitual Mistakes Companies Make – Chapter 7 (6)

TaxConnections Blog Post
Communication to Eliminate Tax Risk –
Breakdown of Communication

PERSONNEL OFTEN MISUNDERSTAND instructions or make mistakes due to overwork, carelessness, or distraction. Temporary or new personnel may also not be adequately trained on new processes they have been introduced to. All of which contributes to the creation of additional unnecessary risks.

Breakdown can be avoided by careful and consistent communication, especially to new and temporary personnel.

Innermetrix © Read More
Written by | Posted in Tax Risk Management

Employment Tax Petitions And Hearings Before The California Unemployment Insurance Appeals Board

1. The CUIAB

If you have received a tax assessment from the California Employment Development Department (EDD), you might be considering filing a petition to contest that assessment with the California Unemployment Insurance Appeals Board (CUIAB). The CUIAB is a quasi-judicial independent governmental agency. Like the EDD, the Board is subject to the California Unemployment Insurance Code and other relevant California law, but it is not a part of the EDD.

2. The Appeals Process

The CUIAB states the following on its own website: Read More

Written by | Posted in Audit • Individual • State And Local Tax (SALT)

A Collection… The Humorous Side of Tax… (6)

♦ The many small stockholders cannot afford professional counsel or evasion devices. –Robert H. Jackson

Here are some quotes by and about a few presidents:

♦ George Washington never told a lie, but then he never had to file a Form 1040.

♦ In my many years I have come to a conclusion that one useless man is a shame, two is a law firm and three or more is a congress. — John Adams (Even more true today)

♦ Excessive taxation will carry reason and reflection to every man’s door, and particularly in the hour of election. — Thomas Jefferson to John Taylor Read More

Written by | Posted in Tax Humor

The Homeowner’s Guide To Deductions

We had a quintessential jovial uncle in the family who said, “Fools build houses for wise men to live in”. He may have been partly right in his own case since he ended up moving every time he bought a home.

But for new home owners, things may not seem so foolish when they come to the realization that they may be able to itemize deductions they couldn’t before. The standard deduction is $6,100 for those filing single and $12,200 for those filing married joint. Having enough in itemized deductions to take you above the standard will help bring down your tax liability.

So what are these additional deductions that lower your taxes and increase your refunds? Read More

Written by | Posted in Tax Tips

How to Avoid FATCA – Tips From Senator Levin

The Report, OFFSHORE TAX EVASION: The Effort to Collect Unpaid Taxes on Billions in Hidden Offshore Accounts, by the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations was released at the end of last month. Senator Carl Levin chairs the Panel and the Report covers lots of ground.

Bashing the Swiss

Looking at the Swiss banking industry it lambasts the Swiss Government for obstructing United States efforts to identify US persons with undisclosed accounts. The Swiss authorities stand accused of lots of wrongdoing – among them: intervening with United States criminal investigations by restricting document production by Swiss banks; pressuring the US to design a non-prosecution program so hundreds of Swiss banks Read More

Written by | Posted in FATCA

Employment Taxes And The Self-Employed Global Worker – So “Un”Happy Together – Part IV (2)

I. A Lesson for the Ages: If You Can’t Beat Them Join Them – continued
a. The C Corporation – An Entity to Avoid

The self-employed U.S. citizen or resident doing business abroad should think long and hard before forming a U.S. corporation in which he is the sole shareholder and employee. Before explaining why this is so, it is necessary to cover a fundamental concept of U.S. international taxation. United States citizens are taxed on their worldwide income regardless of its source – i.e., regardless of whether the income’s origin is foreign or domestic. Noncitizens, who are classified as resident aliens for income tax purposes, are also subject to U.S. income taxation on their worldwide income. Read More

Written by | Posted in International

7 Habitual Mistakes Companies Make – Chapter 7 (5)

TaxConnections Blog Post
Communication to Eliminate Tax Risk

HUMAN JUDGMENT, ESPECIALLY when subjected to pressure, is imperfect. Unless checks and balances are introduced, and encouragement exists to communicate pressurized decisions that may have a negative tax implication, improper human judgment will lead to additional tax risk. For instance, it often happens in a merger acquisition scenario that parties to the transaction are placed under great pressure. Deadlines are created, and parties from all sides do their absolute best to ensure that the deadline is met, for fear of reprisals that may stem from causing the merger or acquisition to flounder. Read More

Written by | Posted in Tax Risk Management

You May Want to Make Your Voluntary Disclosure NOW If You Are A Credit Suisse Client

On Monday, March 10, 2014, we posted United States Client of Credit Suisse? Last Chance To File A Voluntary Disclosure! where we discussed that Thousands of Credit Suisse Group AG’s United States clients still don’t know whether tax authorities will learn their identities as prosecutors work to conclude a three year probe of how the bank helped them evade taxes.

The Swiss disclosure program will lead to 106 banks’ producing information short of client names. We posted on January 28, 2014, Offshore Swiss Bank Account? This May Be Your Last Chance To File A Voluntary Disclosure! where we discussed that the United States Justice Department has received 106 requests from Swiss entities to participate in a US settlement program. Read More

Written by | Posted in OVDP

Think You Got Game? Try Solving A Criminal Tax Problem – Part V

Question # 5: Is anything else relevant?

a. The special agent should review any loan applications that Jack and Janet submitted to the bank. For example, did they buy their home with borrowed funds or outright in cash?

b. The special agent should investigate transactions that Jack and Janet had with their customers and suppliers. That might help make unreported business income a special items method as opposed to an indirect methods item. Because courts are more cynical of the indirect method, it usually draws more scrutiny from courts than the direct method.

See Part I, Part II, Part III and Part IV Read More

Written by | Posted in Tax Fraud/Evasion/Crimes

The Tax Non-Compliant American Abroad: What Are Your Choices? Part V

“High” Risk or “Low” Risk Classifications

The intensity of Internal Revenue Service review for “low” risk taxpayers will be low. For these taxpayers, the IRS will NOT assert any penalties nor will the agency pursue any follow-up actions. The skeletal information provided by IRS indicates that in order to be “low risk”, the taxpayer will have tax owing of $1500 or less for each year and his tax returns will be simple ones. To date, we do not know exactly what the IRS means by “simple” returns, but high levels of income or assets, or significant amounts of income from US-sources will render a return not “simple”. I believe that the taxpayer’s involvement in foreign entities (e.g., CFC, foreign partnership or trust) will do the same thing. Read More

Written by | Posted in Expatriate • FATCA • FBAR • Individual • IRS • Tax Fraud/Evasion/Crimes

A Collection… The Humorous Side of Tax… (5)

♦ Nothing makes a person more modest about his income than to fill out a tax form. Courtesy of Barbara D’Amato

♦ Cutting the IRS budget by more than 5 percent in real terms makes as much sense as a hospital firing surgeons or a car dealer laying off salespeople when customers fill the showroom. David Cay Johnston, Reuters .1-17-12

♦ Unquestionably, there is progress. The average American now pays out twice as much in taxes as he formerly got in wages. — H. L. Mencken

♦ The difference between tax avoidance and tax evasion is the thickness of a prison wall. –Denis Healey Read More

Written by | Posted in Tax Humor
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