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Most Recent Posts

President Obama Would Make Death A Taxable Event

This proposal is so radical because it goes far beyond carryover basis.  It makes death and gifting realization events.  If a family has an appreciated asset that will be held indefinitely one strategy would be to gift it gradually taking advantage of annual exclusions and perhaps aggressive valuations.  This proposal would create the possibility of an immediate income tax event.  Furthermore, this proposal would, in effect, be creating an estate tax for smaller estates.

Of course, we don’t have the devilish details yet.  There is talk of a small business exception.  You could come up with other examples that would work a hardship on a middle class family that has for example a cherished vacation home.

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On SF Payroll Tax, Managing Partners And Pirate Captains

On SF Payroll Tax, Managing Partners And Pirate Captains

CPDB filed the lawsuit to recover a potion of the payroll tax paid on the compensation of its equity partners – $194,903.  That’s just shy of $13 million in compensation they were splitting up if I did the math right.  The argument is that that equity partner compensation should only be subject to the payroll tax to the extent that it is guaranteed.   Essentially, CPDB was trying to smuggle federal income tax principles into the city’s payroll tax computations.

The Internal Revenue Code defines guaranteed payments as amounts paid to partners that do not hinge on partnership profits.  Such payments are deductible to the partnership and included in the partner’s income.  When it comes to equity partners, that can be a meaningless distinction.  One way to split things is to have fixed draws and then some sort of convoluted formula to split up the balance possibly involving the arbitrary rulings of a dictator of greater or lesser benevolence, who usually is just a bit of a sociopath.  On pirate ships he is called the captain.  The modern term is managing partner. What happens if you don’t make draw?  After having a couple of people walk the plank so such a travesty does not happen in the future, the pain has to be spread one way or another.  Ultimately there have to be some partners who have none of their compensation guaranteed, should the sky fall in.

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IRS Revokes Exempt Status Of Faux Veterans Groups

IRS Revokes Exempt Status Of Faux Veterans Groups

One of the rather curious things about the IRS scandal narrative is that the investigation of groups causes quite a bit of angst, but when the IRS actually takes action either denying or revoking exempt status, there is hardly a ripple on the tax blogosphere.   There have been a few denials of 501(c)(4) status, that have gone largely unremarked and now we have two revocations of 501(c)(19) status – Veterans Organizations. The rulings Private Letter Ruling 201451042 and Private Letter Ruling 201451041 give a history of the evolution of the tax treatment of Veterans’ Organizations and highlight the abuse that the IRS was concerned about in the audits that created the flurry of stories last year and perhaps a chance to reflect on how the road to hellish tax complexity is paved with good intentions .

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Charities In Pennsylvania Must Be Pure To Avoid Local Property Taxes

The Pennsylvania legislature had passed a statute to broaden and clarify the definition of “purely public charity”, but the Pennsylvania Supreme Court has ruled that its definition is based on the Pennsylvania constitution and cannot be overridden by the legislature.  There is a movement for a constitutional amendment which requires positive votes in two consecutive sessions of the legislature and then a statewide vote.  The second approval may come up in 2015.  Last month the auditor general issued a report to give a feel for the stakes in the controversy.  A sample of 10 out of the 67 counties in Pennsylvania showed over $1.5 billion in property taxes not paid by organizations with charitable status.

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Looking At Kent Hovind’s Innocence Claims

Looking At Kent Hovind’s Innocence Claims

As I noted in yesterday’s post Kent Hovind’s team as represented by Ernie Land will be going with a “sovereign citizen” type of defense.  Ernie believes that a few people have actually succeeded with those types of defenses, but their records are sealed.  That type of scenario puts my bs detector into high gear, but I don’t doubt Ernie’s sincerity.

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Looking At Kent Hovind’s Innocence Claims

Looking At Kent Hovind’s Innocence Claims

I fear it may not.  In his interviews, Kent has not foreclosed what I, as a layman, see as his best defense.  That would be to plead that he has gotten some really bad advice from Glenn Stoll and now realizes that he was mistaken.  I used to think that Kent could never admit he was wrong about anything, but in his interviews he indicates that he was wrong about the pre-Tribulation rapture (I’ll leave explaining that to my theologically inclined commenters).  I would try to pull in someone like Robert Howze, The Pastors CPA, who would be able to relate many instances of churches and ministries that have been misled by charlatans.  I’ve reached out to some white collar defense experts, but have not found any interested in commenting so I’ll have to leave it at that.

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Kent Hovind Asks Supporters For Noise And Light To Defend Him

Kent Hovind Asks Supporters For Noise And Light To Defend Him

When I told my covivant about Rudy’s Secret Service interview, I had one of those feeling good about being an American moments. There have been 12 Presidents in the White House during my lifetime.  Three have been shot.  That’s 25%.  Maybe there is another job with that kind of exposure to taking a bullet, but I don’t know what it is.  So I’m glad that the Secret Service takes threats against the President quite seriously.  On the other hand, if you think the President is guilty of a crime punishable by death, you have the right to put that out there.

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