Taxes

Friday, December 4th, 2009 at 01:20pm

The Recorder, Amnesty's Allure: The Justice Department's success in cracking the secrecy of Swiss bank UBS has opened up a whole new arena for lawyers handling tax disputes. The lower-penalty voluntary disclosure program the IRS ran between March and October prompted thousands of U.S. taxpayers with foreign accounts to come...

Friday, December 4th, 2009 at 12:45pm

Tax Prof Neil H. Buchanan (George Washington): The Real Damage From Investing Too Little in Higher Education: State Budget Cuts and Federal Responsibilities (FindLaw) Public Skepticism About Higher Education (Dorf on Law)

Friday, December 4th, 2009 at 11:25am

On November 11th, the President signed into the law the Military Spouses Residency Relief Act. MSRRA gives taxpayers who follow a military spouse to a new location because of orders the option to designate their home state as their legal residence and pay state taxes there not in the state of current residence. Legal residence generally is the state in which you live, vote and have a driver&#3[...]

Tags: Tax Info, Kansas Info

Friday, December 4th, 2009 at 10:15am

I don’t understand it. After I read about it in this news item, I thought about it and concluded that it made no sense when viewed rationally and reasonably. How can something so simple become so convoluted?I’m talking about the reaction of Philadelphia’s Board of Revision of Taxes to the criticisms leveled at the way it operates, its failure to generate property valuations that[...]

Friday, December 4th, 2009 at 10:10am

Merciless: IRS Hit-men are ruthless. They don't care if your cat was sick, if credit card bills are due, or if you couldn't afford other luxuries. Boohoo. It's hard for an IRS agent to feel pity for you when the IRS gives you so many advantages. All the resources you need to prevent tax debt are easily available to you.Know the Rules: You're reading this article, so it's e[...]

Friday, December 4th, 2009 at 08:26am

We're more than 90% done with 2009. What you do with the remaining 10% can have a lot to do with how happy you will be when taxes come due in April. Some items for your game plan: Look at the scoreboard. You need to see what your taxable income is so far. Make special note of your business income and your capital gains. You can't know where you are going unless you know where you ar[...]

Friday, December 4th, 2009 at 08:14am

Tax scofflaw and Ways and Means Chair Charlie Rangel proposes to "pay for" the extension of forty five tax provisions that expire every year or so with an increase on the taxes on hedge funds and private equity funds. Among the 45 provisions are special depreciation rules for "motorsports entertainment complexes" and an "alternative motor vehicle credit for heavy hybrid[...]

Friday, December 4th, 2009 at 08:05am

"Those men would deserve the gratitude of ages, who should discover a mode of government that contained the greatest sum of individual happiness with the least national expense."- Giacinto Dragonetti

Friday, December 4th, 2009 at 08:00am

Those of you who were planning to die next year to take advantage of the scheduled one-year repeal of the estate tax may need to make other plans. The House of Representatives yesterday voted to permanently extend the 2009 rules, with their 45% rate and $3.5 million lifetime exclusion. The bill is a long way from passing. The Senate seems to want to make some changes in the estate tax, includin[...]

Friday, December 4th, 2009 at 07:48am

A compulsive gambler whose betting records disappeared with his tax preparer was allowed his gambling losses anyway in Tax Court yesterday. The court reviewed the record, decided the guy was a compulsive gambler and a sad sack, and that he surely blew more at the track than he won. The court almost certainly got it right. Still, it took a trip to Tax Court to win this battle. As gambling tax m[...]

Friday, December 4th, 2009 at 07:00am

The IRS and the Taxpayer Advocate Service (TAS) worked together to develop a toolkit. TAS is an independent organization within the IRS whose employees assist taxpayers who are experiencing economic harm, who are seeking help in resolving tax problems that have not been resolved through normal channels, or who believe that an IRS system or procedure is not working as it should. It's purpose [...]

Tags: 10Tax Controversy

Friday, December 4th, 2009 at 05:08am

Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY) has introduced S. 2794, which provides tax incentives for the charitable donation of wild game meat: Sen Schumer press release Albany Times Union, Chuck Schumer Courts Hunters (Since Deer Can’t Vote) Future of Capitalism, Senator Schumer Shoots for Bambi Newsday, Schumer Proposes Tax Break for Deer...

Friday, December 4th, 2009 at 05:06am

Robert Morse, Director of Data Research at U.S. News & World Report, announced on his blog yesterday that the magazine will expand its ranking of part-time J.D. programs to include peer assessment scores: In addition to having a peer score on a 5.0 scale, U.S. News is contemplating including other...

Friday, December 4th, 2009 at 04:23am

Democrats in the House and Senate yesterday proposed a transactiox tax to raise $150 billion per year to help close the federal budget deficit and fund infastructure projects. H.R. 4191, the Let Wall Street Pay for the Restoration of Main Street Act, would impose a 0.25% tax on stock transactions...

Friday, December 4th, 2009 at 03:20am

Jay D. Wexler (Boston University) compares the impact of his article, Preparing for the Clothed Public Square: Teaching About Religion, Civic Education, and the Constitution, 43 Wm. & Mary L. Rev. 1159 (2002), with the popular press book, Religious Literacy: What Every American Needs to Know--And Doesn't (Harper, 2007):

Friday, December 4th, 2009 at 02:03am

House Ways & Means Committee Chair Charles Rangel (D-NY) yesterday announced that Tax Extenders Act of 2009 (blogged here) would include to revenue-raising provisions to pay the $30 billion cost of extending 45 tax provisions that are scheduled to expire at the end of 2009: H.R. 1935, a tax on...

Thursday, December 3rd, 2009 at 09:46pm

Taxpayer asks: I haven’t seen the 2010 standard mileage rates that the IRS usually puts out at the end of November. Do you know if there was an announcement on this? Taxgirl says: You have super timing! I received this email at 8:53 a.m. today. At 2:36 p.m., an email from IRS landed in my inbox announcing the rates. Here’s the info: Beginning on Jan. 1, 2010, the standard mi[...]

Tags: ask the taxgirl, individual, Medical expenses, small or home-based business, business miles, mileage

Thursday, December 3rd, 2009 at 04:45pm

The House this afternoon approved, by a 225-to-220 vote, a measure to keep the current estate tax law in place permanently. That's a 45 percent tax on estates in excess of $3.5 million per individual ($7 million for married couples). Of course, Congress doesn't always operate under the same definitional boundaries as the rest of us. Witness how it describes a "first-time&qu[...]

Thursday, December 3rd, 2009 at 03:17pm

The recent IRS UBS settlement has created a ripple effect that has far-reaching repercussions on many parties. So which are the parties involved and how does it affect them? The most obvious repercussion is the adverse image this has given to legitimate offshore banking as a whole. Many people maintain bank accounts offshore for reasons of privacy and to protect their assets from creditors. B[...]

Tags: offshore-accounts, Offshore Bank Accounts, Aggressive Pursuit, Depositors, Repercussion, Wealth Managers

Thursday, December 3rd, 2009 at 03:08pm

The House voted 225-200 today to approve H.R. 4154, the Permanent Estate Tax Relief for Families, Farmers, and Small Businesses Act of 2009, which permanently extends the estate tax with a $3.5 million exemption ($7 million for married couples) and 45% top rate. The 225 votes in favor of the...

Thursday, December 3rd, 2009 at 03:00pm

Ruth Mason (UConn) presents Rethinking Tax Expenditures at Columbia today as part of its Tax Policy Colloquium Series. Here is the abstract: Critics have prematurely dismissed tax expenditures as a policy device based on the flawed assumption that the most likely alternative to tax expenditures are federally-administered programs that provide...

Thursday, December 3rd, 2009 at 02:00pm

The Tax Court yesterday allowed a nurse to deduct the cost of an M.B.A. degree from the University of Phoenix. Singleton-Clarke v. Commissioner, T.C. Summ. Op. 2009-182 (Dec. 2, 2009) (citations omitted): Petitioner began taking courses at the University of Phoenix in March 2005, graduating in April 2008 with an...

Thursday, December 3rd, 2009 at 01:37pm

Do you use your vehicle for business? Then you'll want to jot down this number: 50. That's how many pennies each mile of business-related travel is worth on your 2010 taxes.Every fall, the IRS takes a look at inflation, crunches some numbers and issues the coming year's standard mileage rates.In addition to telling us how much we can claim per mile for business travel,[...]

Thursday, December 3rd, 2009 at 01:30pm

Grades: A Perspective -- Grades Matter, but Service Matters More, by William A. Chamberlain (Assistant Dean, Law Career Strategy and Advancement, Northwestern): Grades loom like Marley's ghost or the Spirit of Christmas Future in the minds of law students, particularly first-years, at this time of year. In no other profession...

Thursday, December 3rd, 2009 at 01:16pm

We have previously reviewed two cases that have held that a reduction in gain arising from an erroneous overstated tax basis in an asset is NOT an omission from gross income that can give rise to an extended six year statute of limitations for gross income omissions of 25% or more. Salman Ranch Ltd. et al. v. U.S., 104 AFTR 2d ¶ 2009-5190 (CA FC 7/30/2009); Bakersfield Energy Partners, LP, Ro[...]

Thursday, December 3rd, 2009 at 01:02pm

The IRS has released (IR-2009-111) the standard mileage rates for 2010 (Rev. Proc. 2009-54): Beginning on Jan. 1, 2010, the standard mileage rates for the use of a car (also vans, pickups, or panel trucks) will be: 50 cents per mile for business miles driven [down from 55 cents last...

Thursday, December 3rd, 2009 at 01:00pm

Back in 2007, I blogged an article by Wendy Nelson Espeland (Northwestern University, Department of Sociology) & Michael Sauder (University of Iowa, Department of Sociology), Rankings and Reactivity: How Public Measures Recreate Social Worlds, 113 Am. J. Sociology 1 (2007). Today's National Law Journal reports on their related 2007 article,...

Thursday, December 3rd, 2009 at 11:30am

A question in the comments of an old post: I have been talking with an insurance professional, and she has told me that I can deduct my life insurance premiums through my S corp. She has mentioned doing this through owner distributions (draws). The life insurance is in my name and my wife and I each own 50% of the business and are active participants. What is she talking about? I would say &quot[...]

Thursday, December 3rd, 2009 at 11:23am

From Jeffrey Frankel. Too bad it's entirely politically unfeasible (showing once again that what makes the prospect of default so scary is that the core underlying problem is political, not economic).

Thursday, December 3rd, 2009 at 11:10am

From an IRS news release: Beginning on Jan. 1, 2010, the standard mileage rates for the use of a car (also vans, pickups or panel trucks) will be: * 50 cents per mile for business miles driven * 16.5 cents per mile driven for medical or moving purposes * 14 cents per mile driven in service of charitable organizations The 2009 rate was 55 cents. More at Rev. Proc. 2009-54.