Tax Lawyer's Blog

If you’re an insomniac you may recognize Roni Deutch from her ubiquitous late night infomercials promising taxpayers pennies on the dollar settlements with the IRS:
Joe Kristan writes about yet another lawsuit against Deutch:
California’s Aspiring GovernorAttorney General Jerry Brown has sued Attorney Roni Deutch, who blogs as the “Tax Lady,” for “swindling” taxpayers who hire her to get taxes forgiven. [...]

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“Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction.”
- Thirteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution -
CPA Kip Dillinger writing for Tax Notes says that a war is brewing between tax preparers [...]

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I hope you’re paying attention Mr. Laskey.
John Pacenti of Law.com reports:
The 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, with retired U.S. Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor writing for a three-judge panel, upheld a district court order that the IRS was not entitled to shut down [Abelardo Ernest] Cruz’s tax preparation company, Nations Business Center, nor [...]

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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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Tax News reports that a federal judge has permanently barred Thanh Viet Jeremy Cao and his business, Phoenix Financial Management Group, from preparing federal tax returns:
The court found that Cao prepared numerous federal tax returns claiming a total of over $200 million n tax refunds based on false representations of tax withholdings. The court noted that [...]

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WebCPA reports that thirty-one members of the House have signed a letter to Treasury Secretary Timothy F. Geithner urging changes in the Internal Revenue Service’s proposed plan to regulate paid income tax return preparers:

House lawmakers on both sides of the aisle, including nine members of the tax-writing House Ways and Means Committee, have asked the Treasury Department [...]

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Now that the IRS gets to decide which of us taxpayers are authorized to prepare tax returns and which of us aren’t, it can make us do just about whatever it wants by merely threatening exclusion.
It can even force us to pay it money for the “privilege” of pursuing our chosen livelihoods.
Recently the IRS issued regulations prohibiting tax preparers [...]

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This case has the potential to alter the entire landscape of the tax preparation business.
IR-2010-082 states that the IRS has barred a CPA from future IRS practice for failure to exercise due diligence in the preparation of his clients’ tax returns:
WASHINGTON — The Office of Professional Responsibility (OPR) has prevailed in an agency appeal involving issues which include the due diligence [...]

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Listening to tax blogger Robert Flach explain his opposition to the electronic filing of tax returns and the general use of tax preparation software is like talking to a time traveller from the year of the Hula Hoop and the Slinky.
Robert seems to be wholly unaware that America has been steadily moving toward a paperless society for more than a decade now. From the Federal [...]

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The Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration (TIGTA) issued a report yesterday stating that the IRS failed to make or inappropriately made tax lien determinations in $1.4 billion worth of delinquent tax cases:
The IRS protects its claims against taxpayers who owe delinquent taxes by filing Federal Tax Liens (liens), which establishes the IRS’ priority among secured creditors for [...]

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