Most Recent Posts
Should Mass Same Sex Couples Consider Amending Returns ?
The Justice Department was required to defend DOMA, even though the Obama administration has indicated that it would favor its repeal. They refused, however, to advance any of Congress’s reasons for passing the bill in the first place.
LLC or S Corporation – Six of One A Dozen of the Other
PLR 20107019 has a unique wrinkle though. Its tax distribution plan is based on making distributions in proportion to ownership at the time that the taxable income is generated rather than based on ownership when the distribution is declared
You’ve Got Your Aliens and Then There’s Your Real Aliens
You’ll be glad to know that failure to gain exempt status has not silenced the Pleiadians. You can read all about them at http://pleiadians.net/
Divorcing Spouses Should be Careful About Joint Returns
Another reason not to file a joint return is that you or your soon to be ex, though he or she might be honest as the day as long, may have a high audit potential. One of you might, for example, be involved in a lot of flow-through entities or family businesses
Credit Card Rebates May Yield Charitable Deductions
I will sometimes see organizations sending out acknowledgments that do not meet the substantiation guidelines of the regulations. They are not being nice to their donors when they do that and they are indicating, at least to me, that there is at least one area where they are not on the ball.
Aggressive Life Insurance Plan Fails – Or Maybe Not
Life insurance actually is a very tax-efficient vehicle. The build-up in value, if there is any, is tax-deferred, and proceeds paid by reason of death are free of income tax. The claim that it saves estate taxes is somewhat fallacious.
Does Tax Court Ruling on Gender Reassigment Go Far Enough ?
The taxpayer was mostly victorious being allowed deductions for hormone therapy, counseling, and reassignment surgery. No deduction was allowed for breast augmentation, the hormones having apparently done enough in that regard (at least in the mind of the Tax Court).
You Have to be Able to Keep Your Face Straight
Unfortunately, automobile expenses are covered under Code Section 274, which takes them out of the Cohan rule. Which means if you don’t have good records, you get nothing, which is what Mr. Moore got.
Guess me Out of the Ballpark
Most people don’t keep very good track of how they spend their time. The regulations do not specify a particular method, but the cases beginning with William Goshorn in 1993 (TCM 1993-578) seem to characterize any method that taxpayers use to reconstruct their time as being a “post-event ballpark guesstimate”. “Ballpark guesstimate” which seems to me to be a fairly robust concept is apparently limited to estimates of time spent to satisfy material participation requirements.
It Doesn’t Have to Be a Good Idea
For example, if someone’s investment in a stock or a business were based on Feng Shui or some other cultural judgment, that would not per se be “irrational”. Petitioners used their best judgment and successfully tested their business approach. Ultimately, the fact that their approach was unsuccessful does not make it irrational.