Most Recent Posts
Your Money Or Your Life – Which Can You Deduct ?
The case concerns the 2007 tax year. Apparently the Mills got away with over $2,000,000 in deductions for the first six years the scheme was in effect. The tax accounting issues raised by this are giving me a little bit of a headache. The $2,000,000 in allowed deductions reduced their basis in their LLC interests. Whether that will ever cost them anything depends on what else was inside the LLCs and how long they keep them running. How to sort that out would be a good question to ask on a partnership taxation exam.
Would Be Developer Tripped Up By Interest Tracing Rules
The Tax Court indicated that the renovations would be considered to be funded by the mortgage rather than being funded by the proceeds of the sale of the other property. If someone had been paying attention to the tracing regulations, that problem might have been overcome, but that is easier said than done.
It is troubling that there was no attempt to apply the Cohan rule to allow some of the interest as investment interest.
War Tax Resisters – Don’t Call Them Frivolous
The policy of the IRS set forth on its website is to declare that such a practice is “frivolous.” We contend that Elizabeth’s practice is protected by the Free Exercise of Religion Clause of the First Amendment. We contend that the IRS is required by the Religious Freedom Restoration Act of 1993 to respect and accommodate the practice.
Will Liberal Ministers Challenge Their Own Tax Loophole ?
UU ministers qualify for tax free housing allowances even though, theologically speaking, they might not, strictly speaking, be thought to be “ministers of the gospel”. “Minsters of the gospels, etc” might fit a little better.
Form 8332 – Don’t Let The Kids Live In Another Home Without One ?
There were four cases like that in December and an interesting variation on the same theme. It always comes down to the same thing. Form 8332. If you don’t attach a Form 8332 signed by the custodial parent to the non-custodial return, that parent’s chance of winning vary from extremely slim to none. Here are the highlights:
Some Tax Developments Unrelated To The Fiscal Cliff Drama
I found this paper titled, Important Developments in Federal Income Taxation, by Edward Morse on The Tax Prof Blog. It is not nearly as amusing as going through my posts, but I have to admit, it appears a bit more thorough.
Westboro Baptist Church – Piers Morgan – Death Star – High On “We The People” – Taxes Not So Much
You may find it at least entertaining to spend some time on We The People. Just up is a petition to award a Cold War Service Medal. Obviously somebody appreciates the way my big brother kept the Russians from putting missiles in Cuba, when he wasn’t busy recovering Mercury astronauts.
Fiscal Cliff Team Not Worst Congress Ever – Just Seems That Way
I have to thank Mr. Puleo for the interesting tidbits that Sumner’s brother was on board The Elizabeth. Also drowned in that incident were Margaret Fuller and her husband and infant son. In the hold of The Elizabeth was a statue of John Calhoun. It is all fraught with symbolism, which someday I will work out.
A Petition To Get The IRS Out Of Defining Family
Our tax code’s system of individual taxation is based on the typical American family of the 1950s. Significant simplification could be achieved by replacing the current four individual filing statuses with one and replacing personal and dependency exemptions with a single freely transferable credit.
Should Piers Morgan Go Or Stay And Other Weighty Issues
It is rather odd that the large number of tax policy recommendations that we see in the tax blogosphere do not currently have petitions associated with them. Why is there not a petition about “carried interest” ? Some experts argue the administration could actually address “carried interest” by regulation