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Most Recent Posts

Leisure Suit Larry Shows Up In Tax Court Decision

Leisure Suit Larry Shows Up In Tax Court Decision

I can imagine one of them telling me the story “You wouldn’t believe it, Pete.  This guy comes in and he tells me that he is going to make a video game.”  I reply that that is getting to be a big business now.  I know this because my buddy Mikey and I always go to the Dream Machine and drop quarters into Spy Hunter on our dinner breaks during tax season.
“I know, I know, but listen to what the game is about.  It’s about a forty-year-old guy going to discos and not getting laid.”  I agree that it seems kind of stupid.  Too much like real life.  “It gets even better, though. He thinks that in the long run, he’ll be making training simulators for the FBI and groups like that.”  Now that is really crazy.  Lots of guys in the FBI come from Jesuit Colleges.  They learned how not to get laid in Catholic grammar school, they don’t need a computer program for that.  “No. No.  The FBI stuff is from a submarine game.”  The FBI has submarines? “Anyway, I told the guy we were kind of busy and probably couldn’t help him”.
Accountants actually do provide value to entrepreneurs, but many of us are lacking in “the vision thing”.  It is not reasonable to chide someone who has succeeded in improbable ventures for not asking “experts” whether a business scheme is feasible or not.

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Billy Sol Estes – Better To Owe It To You Than Cheat You Out Of It

Billy Sol Estes – Better To Owe It To You Than Cheat You Out Of It

  If I sell you the Brooklyn Bridge that creates immediate income.  If I can convince you to loan me money using my interest in the Brooklyn Bridge as security and the transaction is recognized as a loan, that is not immediate income.  Someday, I may have to pay the piper if I finally stiff you, but there are ways around discharge of indebtedness income, like bankruptcy, for example.  That is why it is better to owe it to you, than cheat you out of it.

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Let The IRS Stick To Collecting Taxes

Let The IRS Stick To Collecting Taxes

  If we are going to have deductible charitable contributions then we need the IRS to be looking at some charities, but organizations end up applying for exempt status for a large variety of reasons that have nothing to do with taxation.  501(c) status creates an unjustified patina of respectability in some circles and, in some states, will allow privileges such as running gambling operations.  Some people seem to think that 501(c)(4) status can hide the fact that you grass-roots populist movement is backed by billionaires.  What these extraneous matters have in common is little or no connection to the IRS mission:

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Doctor Joyce Brothers Cameo In Tax Court And Women’s History

Doctor Joyce Brothers Cameo In Tax Court And Women’s History

When I was a kid, I was confused about Doctor Joyce Brothers.  I thought there were two brothers whose last name was Joyce and that they were both doctors.  Like those brothers named Halls who had beards and made cough drops.  They must have been doctors.  (I know that’s not accurate either.  Give me a break.  I was 10.) 

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Electing To Capitalize Expenses Can Pay Off On Sale

Electing To Capitalize Expenses Can Pay Off On Sale

What is extraordinary is that’s the whole section.  No sub-sections, paragraphs, sub-paragraphs.  A single sentence.  It has been handed down to us virtually unchanged from the 1954 Code, except that in 1977 they cut three words.  We should get that team working on the rest of the Code.

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Brooklyn Grandmother Wins On Dependency Exemption

Brooklyn Grandmother Wins On Dependency Exemption

The argument that the IRS was putting forward was the “tie-breaker” rule.  If E.P. was claimed by both Ms. Coultman and her daughter, the tie-breaker rule would give the exemption to the parent.  Ms. Coultman did not believe that her daughter, who was not employed during 2008, claimed E.P.  The IRS argued that she had, but was unable to introduce any proof.

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Book On New Jersey Wines Does Not Support Deducting Trips To France

Book On New Jersey Wines Does Not Support Deducting Trips To France

Professor Westrich was able to point to a publishing success that might make his years of research profitable.  Unfortunately, the Tax Court did not think that writing “The Wines of New Jersey” required annual trips to France for nearly a decade.  When I think New Jersey and wine, the thing that pops into my mine is Boone Farm Wine.  That was one of the favorite wines in Fairview in the early seventies.  It was really good after a couple of joints – that’s what I was told by some people anyway.  Apparently, the Garden State has a strong viticulture tradition which Professor Westrich documents.  Who knew?

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Searching For A Little Piece of New Jersey In Virginia

Searching For A Little Piece of New Jersey In Virginia

The Park Service event was very impressive.  Mr. O’Reilly gave us quite a speech about how rigorous it was going to be.  Two miles in and two miles out some of it through dense forest.  He probably exaggerated just a bit to be on the safe side.  We stopped periodically and he or Ms. Parnicza talked about what had happened on that very spot.  They showed us how we were out of sight of the road which added to the confusion.  Some of the hike was over land owned and farmed by the Hawkins family, both then and now. 

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