Most Recent Posts
Valuation Abuse In Conservation Easements – Rare Or Pervasive?
Way back in 2011 covering a private letter ruling that disallowed exempt status for a sketchy land trust I came up with a prescient title Conservation Easements A New Field For Villainy.
Tax Court Demolishes Deconstruction Deduction
Image by By Arturo Espinosa SeguirJacques Derrida for PIFALPencil on Fabriano. - This piece really has nothing to do with the kind of deconstruction that Derrida...
Don’t Drop Your Tax Court Petition In the Mailbox
The envelope that arrived at the Tax Court was kind of extraordinary. It had been in the USPS system for several weeks, without having any marks at all placed on it. This created a real puzzler for Judge Vasquez.
Couple Loses $7,000+ Tax Refund From Being Two Days Late
Judge Conley did note that the result was harsh. Harsh as it is it is an important lesson. When you are dealing with a refund claim, you need to allow more than a week, since you can’t rely on the timely mailed rule. You want enough time so that if your return receipt is not back two weeks before the date you need to hit, you still have time to send in another claim.
Deconstruction – CPA Calls For Appraisal Standards For Deductions
My recent post titled Tax Court Demolishes Deconstruction Deduction seems to have struck a nerve. The feedback I have gotten indicates that Second Chance Inc., the...
Gay Rights, Religion And Dinosaurs – My Top Tax Stories Of The Decade
I picked these three story arcs because they ran so long and raise so many other issues. They are not the only controversial activities I have covered. More importantly, they have not distracted me from the practical focus as I have provided lessons on not blowing off 1099s, thinking carefully about filing joint returns and being bold in claiming “hobby losses” among other things
Mormons And The Tax Law
The issue of whether churches should be exempt from the same transparency as other not-for-profits has been litigated. Generally speaking the concern about lack of transparency seems to usually be ministers essentially looting from their congregations. Nobody seems to be thinking anything like that is going on with the Mormons.
Tax Court Rescues Taxpayer From The Agent From Hell
AFH is firmly convinced that your client is up to no good. I have only run into AFH a couple of times. My personal approach to Revenue Agents is that we are brother or brother and sister accountants searching for the truth. That the truth is definitely “no change” or in a very rare circumstance a refund is something that I don’t emphasize.
AFH is a different story. I have a friend who would yell and scream and pound the table with AFH. My approach is more passive-aggressive, which I like to think gets under AFH’s skin even more.
IRS Grinch Ruining Christmas For Syndicated Conservation Easements
Bill Clabough, Executive Director of Foothills is unable to comment on the case, since Foothills is not really involved in the tax structuring or the valuation. He can wax poetic on the beauty of the property and the satisfaction of having it preserved. And he assured me that there is not a lot of unexploded ordnance laying around. We made some tentative arrangements for me to visit the property, but that won’t be for a few months.
How Not To Deal With A Bad 1099
In an email exchange in one of the exhibits, it is mentioned that Jane’s attorney was charging $850 per hour. Given that Jane’s exposure might have been an unjustified tax deficiency in the $20,000 vicinity, it’s hard to see the value there particularly since having to pay any sort of deficiency would be highly improbable.