Most Recent Posts
Think Before Filing Joint Returns
Eileen L. Pugsley v. Commissioner, TC Memo 2010-255 This was originally published on PAOO on November 26th, 2010. I've written before on not reflexively filing joint...
Does Cohan Still Rule ?
This was originally published on PAOO on November 24th, 2010. COHAN v. COMMISSIONER OF INTERNAL REVENUE, Cite as 8 AFTR 10552, 03/03/1930 If you have been here...
Making A List And Checking It Twice
U.S. v. BRIER, Cite as 106 AFTR 2d 2010-5459, 11/05/2010 U.S. v. VAZQUEZ, Cite as 106 AFTR 2d 2010-6970, 11/08/2010 This was originally published on PAOO on November...
A Tisket A Tasket – Your Hedge Fund’s in a Basket
AM 2010-005 This was originally published on PAOO on November 18th, 2010. So today we get to introduce a new acronym. What is an "AM" you ask. Well it is Legal Advice...
The Powder To Blow It Away
Mr. Rolf arranged for an appraisal of his property. The appraiser did a valuation of the property with and without the structure that after standing nearly century went out in a blaze of glory to the edification of the Chenequa Volunteer Fire Department. The appraiser determined that the value of Mr. Rolf’s property had declined from $655,000 to $579,000. Accordingly, he claimed a charitable contribution of $76,000.
Time To Purge The Draft Posts
I swear if they ever have a machine to test for tax geekiness where they attach and insert all sorts of devices that monitor your reactions and then flash things on the screen that will be one of the things they use. If you just had a WOW – That’s really interesting, you are a total tax geek (Maybe some sort of highly specialized business broker just to be open to other possibilities. ). If you just had a WTF (That stands for What The ?) you are a normal human being.
IRS More Liberal Than Tax Court on Home Mortgage Interest
Which brings us to residence interest. There are two types. Acquisition indebtedness is used to purchase one or two residences. In addition to tracing the indebtedness to an acquisition of a personal residence the debt must be secured by “such” residence. There is a limit, not on the amount of interest but rather on the amount of indebtedness. $1,000,000 – not indexed for inflation. Then there is home equity indebtedness.
We Only Wash Losses Here
I’ve been sitting on this one for a while. It was issued July 27, 2010. It refers to the flash crash of the stock market on May 6 which caused many stop-loss orders to be triggered some of which resulted in gain recognition. Whoever (I don’t think Redacted Text was his real name) wrote to the IRS more or less logically (as if that means anything) thought investors should be able to reestablish those positions with appropriate basis as if no gain were recognized.
And Another Purge
If you were supposed to send somebody a 1099, you were supposed to ask them for their social security number of EIN. Since you didn’t ask they didn’t give it to you. Therefore you should have subjected their payments to back up withholding. It’s a nightmare. You can get out of the back-up withholding by getting them to sign a form swearing they reported the income. Good luck.
Let The Sun Shine In
I’m going to do this as a bonus post because I don’t have the ability to expand on it much. They have figured out a way to make a “curtain wall” of glass where all the windows are, in effect, solar panels. The Service has ruled that even though such a wall is clearly a “structural component” of the building, the entire cost is still subject to the 30% energy credit. That’s a great credit since it is one that can be used against the AMT (The only thing better is a refundable credit).