Tax Lawyer's Blog

“Nothing concentrates a man’s mind like the prospect of being hanged in the morning.”
- Samuel Johnson -
The New York Daily News reports that day-trader Marcos Esparza Bofill has been hit with a $172,000,000 IRS tax bill:
He failed as a day-trader and barely survived in New York on a beer budget, but Marcos Esparza Bofill has been hit [...]

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From Paul Caron:
Bret Wells (Houston) has posted Adopting the More Likely Than Not Standard for Tax Returns, 127 Tax Notes 451 (April 26, 2010), on SSRN. Here is part of the abstract:
Under current law, a taxpayer may generally take a tax return position without penalty or disclosure if there is substantial authority that the position [...]

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Every year the IRS publishes audit statistics showing that it audits S Corporation returns much less frequently than it audits sole proprietorship (schedule C) returns. Consequently, one of the factors business owners and their advisors have traditionally considered before choosing a form of business is the relative likelihood of IRS scrutiny of the business’s tax return.
No surprises there, right?
Well, not so fast. Last week I attended [...]

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WebCPA reports that an IRS agent has been charged with soliciting and accepting a $9,700 bribe from two business owners in exchange for lowering the amount of taxes they owed:

Roger Anthony Coombs, 40, of Circle Pines, Minn., was charged with one count of corruptly soliciting and agreeing to receive and accept anything of value personally [...]

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CPAs have joined lawyers in a bid to get the IRS to withdraw a proposed rule that would require companies with more than $10 million in total assets to disclose uncertain tax positions.
From WebCPA:
In comments submitted to the IRS on June 1, the AICPA said the new reporting requirements will fall heavily on taxpayers already stretched to meet [...]

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From Paul Caron:
The ABA Committee on Government Affairs on Friday sent this letter to the IRS expressing its opposition to the proposals to require taxpayers to disclose uncertain tax positions to the IRS:Â
On behalf of the ABA, I write to express our concerns regarding the proposals contained in IRS Announcement 2010-9, 2010-7 I.R.B. 408, Announcement 2010-17, 2010-13 I.R.B. [...]

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Will the oil spill help Obama close the tax gap?
Here’s Louis Sahagun writing for Tribune Newspapers:Â
BP’s request for tax records poses a problem for some residents of fishing communities in southeastern Louisiana — the nonconformists who haven’t kept records or reported their cash income.
The first step for a commercial fisherman or coastal business seeking compensation [...]

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Some unenrolled preparers claim that CPA and attorney preparers charge too much for tax return preparation.
I say “pshaw!” This is dangerous work.
WebCPA reports that a disgruntled taxpayer fired a shot at an H&R Block employee who allegedly messed up his tax return:
A man in Dayton, Ohio, opened fire on an H&R Block employee whom he [...]

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Doug Lederman writing for USA Today says that the IRS is examining the executive compensation structures of 400 colleges and universities to determine whether or not they are violating the rule against private inurement:
In more than 30 reviews the Internal Revenue Service is conducting of individual colleges and universities, it is focusing mostly on issues [...]

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WebCPA reports that Republican Senate candidate Marco Rubio is being investigated by the IRS:
Rubio has been criticized in campaign ads for using his Republican Party American Express card to pay for personal expenses, including repairs to his family minivan, grocery bills, plane tickets for his wife, and retail purchases. Rubio blamed accounting errors and said he has [...]

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