Too Much Assuming Leads To Over Quarter Million Late File Penalty
I think that the result in this case is rather harsh. Given how compliant the taxpayers were once they got their act together, I think the government should have been satisfied with the late pay penalty. The problem would have been easily avoided if they had been more proactive in communicating with their professionals and if the professionals had been communicating with one another. You can’t tell from the decision why the proactivity was not happening. There may have been an understandable desire to minimize fees. If that is the case it was kind of a penny wise, pound foolish result.
I think that you could use this case as an object lesson in why you might want to consider involving a professional as at least a co-executor, if you have a significant estate. At any rate, you should try to arrange things so that your advisers and heirs/executors will work as a team.
Massachusetts Hits Staples For $10 Million On Sham Interest Deductions
The cause might have been hopeless, but some attention to detail might have helped. This case makes me wonder how solid many other corporate tax schemes would turn out to be if subject to much in the way of scrutiny. Accountants tend to think that journal entries are deeply meaningful, but it seems that whenever they are tested in court, judges are dismissive of “mere bookkeeping entries”.
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Over and over again courts have said that there is nothing sinister in so arranging one’s affairs as to keep taxes as low as possible. Everybody does so, rich or poor; and all do right, for nobody owes any public duty to pay more than the law demands: taxes are enforced exactions, not voluntary contributions. To demand more in the name of morals is mere cant.