No Money For April 15 1040 Balance Due? Don’t Panic!
You can request an extension of time to file even though you don’t have the money to send in with it. This gets you out of the late file penalty, although it does not help with interest. The other advantage of going on extension is that it will be six months longer before your payment plan commences.
Easement Valuations Not So Easy Anymore
One development is the recent Tax Court decision in the case of Gordon and Lorna Kaufman. The Kaufman’s easement deduction had been disallowed on technical ground in an earlier Tax Court decision, but the First Circuit overturned that decision. I covered the First Circuit decision here. So the Tax Court got the case back in order to decide what the value of the easement was.
The problem with valuing the easement was that the property was already subject to a lot of restrictions due to its location in Boston’s South End Landmark District. Giving up your rights to change the façade of a building in such a neighborhood can be a bit like me renouncing my superpowers. That ended up being the Tax Court’s conclusion on valuation. The court went along with the IRS expert’s criticism of the taxpayer’s appraiser
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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.