Reliance on tax software does not let taxpayer off the hook
A recent Tax Court case provides a cautionary tale for taxpayers who rely on do-it-yourself tax preparation software to prepare their tax returns. In the case, the Tax Court held that a taxpayer couldn't blame his tax prep software for deductions that he took on his tax return that were disallowed (Bulakites, T.C. Memo. 2017-79). Barry Bulakites is an [...]
IRS Alerts Taxpayers with Limited English Proficiency of Ongoing Phone Scams; Urges Caution Before Paying Unexpected Tax Bills
WASHINGTON — The Internal Revenue Service today warned taxpayers with limited English proficiency of phone scams and email phishing schemes that continue to occur across the [...]
IRS enforcement activities dropped in 2016
The IRS reported several large drops in its enforcement activities in fiscal year 2016, including a 16% drop in audits, a 40% drop in levies, and a 9% drop in liens compared [...]
How to determine profit motive
In two cases, the Tax Court looked at factors besides a history of losses in determining whether the hobby loss rules would prevent the taxpayers from deducting their [...]
Tax Rules for Uber, Lyft and Other Ride-Share Drivers
Instead of sitting at home watching TV reruns during their down time, some of your clients are making extra cash by offering their services in the shared economy. One of the [...]
New Form 5472 Filing Requirements for Foreign-Owned U.S. Disregarded Entities (“FOUSDEs”)
On December 13, 2016, the IRS published new regulations that treat foreign-owned U.S. disregarded entities (“FOUSDEs”) as domestic corporations for purposes of filing Form [...]
IRS Budget: Penny-wise, Pound-foolish
Tax professionals feel the pain.
People don’t often have much nice to say about the Internal Revenue Service. But everybody seems to like what internal revenues pay [...]
This Year’s IRS Audits Are Bad News for the Rich
The IRS is turning up the heat on taxpayers. Some of them, anyway.
The number of audits conducted by the Internal Revenue Service has dropped as it continues to reel from [...]
HSA Contribution Limit For Two Plans Or Mid-Year Changes
We all know that to be able to contribute to an HSA you need to have an HSA-eligible high deductible health plan (HDHP) and no other coverage. The HSA contribution limit [...]