Most Recent Posts
Hooking Up With Gen Y – Challenge for Business
Originally Published on forbes.com on January 27th, 2012 ______________________________________ Tim Smith blogs on the “Echo Boom”, also known as Generation Y...
Gingrich and Medicare Tax – Pig Maybe – Hog Not – Geithner Definitely Not
Originally Published on forbes.com on January 23rd, 2012 ______________________________________ At Joseph B. Cohan and Associates, the top 20th century...
Joint Return for Divorcing Spouses – Think Thrice – Then Think Again
Originally Published on forbes.com on January 22nd, 2012 ______________________________________ Innocent spouse cases frequently frustrate me. Often it is because the...
Left Should Challenge Obama, Not Romney, on Carried Interest
Originally Published on forbes.com on January 20th, 2012 ______________________________________ Criticizing Romney for paying an average rate of 15% is ridiculous. ...
Northwestern Whole Life Policy Creates Tax Disaster – Again
Originally Published on forbes.com on January 19th, 2012 ______________________________________ Life insurance is a tax favored vehicle. The build-up in value is tax...
Is Tax Court Decision End of Colorado Conservation Range War ?
If you are considering a conservation easement donation, be sure to use an organization with a long-established track record and significant resources. Don’t do it unless you have a sincere desire for the property to be preserved. And when it comes to the valuation, there is being aggressive and there is being crazy. As we used to say at Joseph B. Cohan and Associates, “Pigs get fed. Hogs get slaughtered.”
Photographing, Writing, Flying But Ultimately Not Deducting
The Court also had issues with substantiation. Although he had receipts for his expenses, they were not correlated with the business purposes of the expenditures. Mr. Oros was representing himself in Tax Court, which is understandable given the relatively low stakes. I’m wondering if the case might have gone the other way if he had had a tax litigator in his corner. He had consulted with a CPA on the deductibility of his expenses before filing, which at least saved him penalties. Lew Taishoff did a nice piece on this case titled “I Could Write a Book.”
Student Loans and Bankruptcy – The Debate Continues
Remember that as we speak, the true default rate likely reaches or exceeds 40% and that the general public is quickly learning about the systemic corruption that has been festering across the schools, lenders, and federal government for years. I would say that if the higher education decision-makers (including Congress and the Executive branch) continue to ignore this problem for any significant length of time, they can expect the full-scale evaporation of public confidence in the lending system, and morphing of public fear and compliance into deep resentment and focused anger. In this environment, few will pay their student loans, and the bureaucrats and electeds who, today, dishonor themselves through gross neglect of the public interest can look forward to explaining why they failed to act at this critical time when all that will follow could have been efficiently averted.
IRS Promotes its Social Media Resources
Originally Published on forbes.com on January 8th, 2012 ______________________________________ One of the first things to come out of the IRS this year is this little...
“Occupy Cabrini” Does Not Spare Boston Archdiocese from Property Taxes
Originally Published on forbes.com on January 8th, 2012 ______________________________________ I have an affinity for multiples of 15. It is not from playing cribbage,...