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Most Recent Posts

Federal Land Patent Barring Property Tax Argument Fails In Wisconsin

Federal Land Patent Barring Property Tax Argument Fails In Wisconsin

A lot of land in the United States traces back to federal land patents.  We don’t want to think too hard about how it is that the federal government came to own the land.  It was not always a pretty process.  One of the reasons taxes were low in the 19th Century was that the government had quite a bit of revenue from land sales. 

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Why Tax Reform Is Impossible

Why Tax Reform Is Impossible

Credits and deductions bridge the ideological gap that that creates a presumption on one side that everything is done better if it is done by free market forces and that on the other side presumes that if somebody is making money on it it must be bad for everybody else.  The collateral damage from that mode of compromise is a messy complicated tax code.

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Do Women CPAs Just Need To Lean In ?

Do Women CPAs Just Need To Lean In ?

Personally, I don’t think public accounting’s “women at the top problem” will be solved by women reading “Lean In” and changing their ways.  It will be solved when a few score women directors, senior managers and income partners walk out and start a firm.  I’d be willing to bet that Womanpower CPAs would have one of the top 4 spots within a decade and transform the industry.

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Not Good For Real Estate Loss When Tax Court Judge Says Purports

Not Good For Real Estate Loss When Tax Court Judge Says Purports

This is something that a lot of people trip up on, because these rules are so confusing.  The real estate pro status just gets you out of the “per-se” rule.  You still have to show that you “materially participated” in each of your properties.  The gold standard of material participation is 500 hours, which, of course, is impossible if you have several properties.  You are, however, allowed to elect to aggregate your properties into a single activity for purposes of measuring participation.  The Bugarins failed to make the election.

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Freedom Rider Asks To Give Peace A Chance – Peace Tax Fund Act Of 2013

I am also in favor of the bill, although I would not take advantage of it myself.  Personally, I think that, on net, the Armed Forces of the United States of America are mainly occupied with convincing people that it is an extremely bad idea to organize folks to fly airplanes into our office buildings or things like that.  Like an all volunteer military, though, I think the fund would put an important brake on the government’s ability to resort to force.

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Real Estate Pro Status Does Not Mix With Full Time Day Job

Real Estate Pro Status Does Not Mix With Full Time Day Job

I think it is close to hopeless for someone with a full-time day job to win one of these cases.  If you are going to try to do it anyway, keep a detailed log of your real estate activities, contemporaneously.  Cross-reference the log to documents such as invoices, phone bills and print-outs of e-mails.  Have a nice fat three-ring binder to hand to the agent when the question comes up.  Even though the IRS seems pre-disposed to not believe anybody with a full-time day job can qualify, they also don’t like to lose cases.

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Court Of Claims Cuts No Slack On Filing Deadline

Court Of Claims Cuts No Slack On Filing Deadline

You have two years from the time the IRS disallows your claim. I have a hard time believing that someone could blow that deadline, but I also have a hard time figuring out why people who are paid millions of dollars to play basketball ever miss foul shots.

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Toxic Combination Day Trading And Failure To File A Tax Return

Ultimately, we have a failure by Youngquist to maintain his Protrade records and a failure to file a timely tax return. This 1996 tax liability is being litigated in 2013. “It is not the task of this or any court to restructure a taxpayer’s dealings, in lieu of his facing a prescribed burden of proof, in order justify his entitlement to some tax benefit.” Better Beverages, Inc. v. U.S., 619 F.2d 424, 430 (1980). “hen a taxpayer has failed to arrange his affairs so as to minimize his taxes, he cannot expect the court to do it for him nunc pro tunc.”

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