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Most Recent Posts

Can Somebody Explain Tax Shelters To Thomas Piketty?

My career has spanned the period in which the United States moved from high marginal rates – 70% when I started – to much lower rates and something of a war on tax shelters.  The high marginal rates seemed to create an irresistible impulse to use the tax code as the Swiss Army knife of social policy.  Something tells me that high marginal rates will not all of a sudden give us CEOs who will say “Screw it, I’ll just take 400 grand.  Not much point in having more.”  Rather, there will be a renaissance of shelter activity.

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Former Tampa Bay Buccaneers Owner Scores Touchdown In Tax Court

Former Tampa Bay Buccaneers Owner Scores Touchdown In Tax Court

The parcel had a history of zoning problems and conservation concerns.  There is a bald eagle nest on the property and it is within a wildlife corridor.  The IRS valued the property based on how it is currently zoned.  The PRH appraisal was based on obtaining a higher density and allowing for multi-family housing.  The IRS harped on the former zoning problems, environmental issues and likely neighborhood opposition to multi-family housing

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Nonrecognition On Divorce Transfers Hurts Receiving Spouse

Nonrecognition On Divorce Transfers Hurts Receiving Spouse

We understand petitioner to argue that she had reasonable cause for treating the Distribution as nontaxable income because she contends that she relied in good faith on the advice of her tax professional. Petitioner’s assertion is unsubstantiated. Petitioner did not demonstrate that a tax professional advised her to take the position that the Distribution was nontaxable income. Petitioner’s inclusion of an unauthenticated and unsigned document, purportedly created by her tax professional, does not substantiate her claim. Moreover, there is nothing in the record regarding whether the Distribution was nontaxable income. Additionally, there is nothing in the record demonstrating that petitioner provided the Form 1099-R to her tax professional.

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IRS Cannot Levy Tribal Payments

IRS Cannot Levy Tribal Payments

It is not just the tribes that make per-capita payments.  The State of Alaska also makes a distribution to all its residents, although it is much more modest than what the Puyallup pay.  If you go back to the Founders, you will find that Thomas Paine advocated some sort of per-capita payment to recognize that unlike the state of nature where there were lots of things available if you were willing to do a bit of work, even by the late eighteenth century most of the world was owned by somebody.

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Risk Of At-Risk – Ominous Memo Hints At Fallout From IRS Audits Of Large Partnerships

Risk Of At-Risk – Ominous Memo Hints At Fallout From IRS Audits Of Large Partnerships

The reason that the partnership form is the entity of choice for tax sheltering is that you have basis in your share of the partnership’s liabilities.  Basis is the third hoop you have to jump through to post a negative number on your return.  (The first two, which I will not be discussing are the activity being for profit (Section 183) and the allocation of loss to you being valid (Section 704))Having basis also allows you to take cash out of the entity without recognizing gain.

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Tax Denier Wins Damage Claim Against IRS Levy – Kind Of

Tax Denier Wins Damage Claim Against IRS Levy – Kind Of

There are a significant number of people out there who argue that most ordinary Americans are not subject to income tax.  Although they always lose on those arguments, and Ms. Music is no exception, when there is actual litigation, this case is evidence that they may be swamping the system.  Ms. Music went 15 years without filing.  The strains on the IRS budget make it more likely that more of them will be able to slip through the cracks. The courts, quite rightly, will require the IRS to dot all its i’s and cross all its t’ s, as they are doing in this case.  Nothing is requiring Congress to provide them with the resources to do that.

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IRS Chief Counsel Checks 1986 Committee Reports To Give Break On Foreclosed Real Estate

IRS Chief Counsel Checks 1986 Committee Reports To Give Break On Foreclosed Real Estate

A foreclosure on real property subject to recourse debt comprising the taxpayer’s entire interest in a passive (or former passive) activity is a fully taxable transaction for purposes of §§ 1001 and 469(g)(1)(A), regardless of whether any COD income from the cancellation of recourse debt is excluded under § 108(a)(1)(B). Thus, the losses from the activity are treated as not from a passive activity under §469(g)(1)(A). Additionally, these losses are not reduced by any excluded COD income under § 108(b)(2)(F).

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