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Most Recent Posts

CPA Convicted Of Assisting On False Tax Return – Did He Get A Raw Deal?

CPA Convicted Of Assisting On False Tax Return – Did He Get A Raw Deal?

Beginning in 2007, Burrill Capital began taking its management fees a little early to deal with “cash flow” problems.  By 2012, it had taken more than it could possibly earn before the fund’s scheduled closing – over $18 million.  In 2012, there was a capital call on the investors purportedly to fund investments. but some of that went to the prepaid management fee.  It is important to note that Mr. Berger had nothing at all to do with these shenanigans.  That was one of the objections to the way that the Government had presented its case to the jury.

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Love Of Music Hurts Chance For Deductions And In Tax Court Use A Lawyer

Love Of Music Hurts Chance For Deductions And In Tax Court Use A Lawyer

In short, petitioner did not have the requisite intent to make a profit and thus may not deduct the losses in dispute. She had no expertise in club ownership, maintained inadequate records, disregarded expert business advice, nonchalantly accepted Bell Cove’s perpetual losses, and made no attempt to reduce expenses, increase revenue, or improve Bell Cove’s overall performance. Owning Bell Cove elevated petitioner’s status in the country music community, allowed her to further the careers of young performers, offered her weekly opportunities to interact with country music fans, and satiated her love for promoting country music. Petitioner earnestly devoted time and energy to Bell Cove but was primarily motivated by personal pleasure, not profit, and simply used the club’s losses to offset her trust and capital gain income.

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Wesley Snipes Can Get Another Bite At IRS Collection Apple And Another Trip To Tax Court If He Wants

Wesley Snipes Can Get Another Bite At IRS Collection Apple And Another Trip To Tax Court If He Wants

The undisputed assessed tax is like the sticker price on a car or perhaps, more aptly, full tuition at a brand name college with a generous financial aid program.  That is what Wesley Snipes was arguing about with the IRS.  How much could he afford? Reasonable collection potential (RCP).  Why did he not take the seemingly generous offer that IRS made?  And what further recourse does he have?  Those are the questions I find interes

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Ask Your Tax Pro About 199A

They called it the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act and there was some logic to it.  An inference that you can make from the bill is that jobs – specifically employment that results in somebody getting a W-2 – are a good thing.  Therefore ” job creators” should pay less income tax on the money that they make than “jobholders” pay on the money that they make.  How much less? Well, they settled on 20%.  In the House version of the bill, the emphasis on job creation was not as strong.  It was pretty much just that people who get business income without doing any work should pay less than people who get income from working.  And it was implemented by a special rate.  Section 199A which is what we ended up with is a deduction.

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Gadfly Rails Against Secret Tax Law For Exempt Organizations

And here we see what a profound difference a few years makes in the life of experience of a member of my generation. The “counter-culture” spread unevenly in the sixties and a University of Maryland student majoring in economics and business could be relatively unaffected by it when he graduated in 1968.  He wanted to live out that idealism by becoming a Navy pilot but lacked good enough eyesight.  The next best thing was enlisting in the Army and going infantry – 101st Airborne Division.  Disillusionment came quickly in Vietnam in 1969. He referred me to a book called A Bright Shining Lie.  His company took 50% casualties while he was with it. I turned 16 in 1968 making my experience of the same period more confusing than disillusioning and, of course, exceedingly more benign.

After discharge, Mr. Streckfus started participating in Vietnam Veterans Against the War 

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Tax Refund Claim On Pump And Dump Loss Evokes Memory Of The Tech Bubble

Tax Refund Claim On Pump And Dump Loss Evokes Memory Of The Tech Bubble

The Adkins were victims of a “pump and dump” operation.  “Pump and dump” involves buying up a relatively low-value stock, convincing other people that the stock has great prospects, causing the price to be bid up and then dumping the stock near the peak.  You have to give “pump and dump” people a little credit in that there is a real company there.  It also makes them harder to catch compared to a Ponzi scheme, because the fraudsters are not necessarily directly transacting with the victim and there is an actual thing being purchased. “Pump and dump”, in my mind at least, is just one step beyond many legal business practices – like most of the time share industry – don’t get me started.

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IRS Penalizes Plan Of Minister To Donate House To Ministry While Continuing To Live There

IRS Penalizes Plan Of Minister To Donate House To Ministry While Continuing To Live There

Setting up a church and then donating your house to the church while continuing to live there, presumably with all the expenses run through the church and the benefit of living there being excluded under Code Section 107(1) strikes me as a brilliant scheme .  You could also throw in a property tax exemption depending on what state you are in and how hungry the local assessors are.  I really would have liked to see how the plan would have flown, but the Tax Court never had to get to its merits, because of poor execution.  What a shame.  Execution isn’t everything, but it’s a lot.

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Parsonage Showdown In Seventh Circuit This Week

Parsonage Showdown In Seventh Circuit This Week

Although you will see this dispute being framed as one between atheists and the religious,  the guy who started all this is a member of the Churches of Christ who was upset about the particularly egregious parsonage shenanigans of his own denomination. (Churches of Christ isn’t exactly a denomination by its own terms, but to those outside of it, it looks like one.)

Robert Baty was an IRS revenue officer when he was asked about the case of a college basketball coach who was excluding part of his income as a housing allowance.  The practice traces back to a revenue ruling that the IRS issued under pressure from Congressmen Burleson and Bush to bail Abilene College out of a payroll audit.

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Preacher Taxed On Regular Gifts From Congregation Members

Preacher Taxed On Regular Gifts From Congregation Members

While he was at Tuskegee University, Bishop Felton first learned about the notion of “handshake money” – donations made directly to the pastor on the way out of church.  He didn’t like the way that it was done and resolved that he would handle it differently when he had his own church.

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Atheist Group Asks To Disclose To IRS What Churches Disclose: Nothing

Atheist Group Asks To Disclose To IRS What Churches Disclose: Nothing

Form 990 is a required filing that creates significant transparency for exempt organizations.  In 1971, it was harder to get your hands on Form 990, but a team of reporters working for Warren Buffet’s Omaha Sun took the trouble which allowed them to expose the extent to which fundraising had outstripped service delivery at the venerable Boys Town.

The Evangelical Council for Financial Accountability recommends financial transparency for churches:

 The financial statements (and the disclosure of the financial statements) are key components of transparency, both within the ministry and to donors and the public. This flows directly from biblical principles: “This is the verdict: Light has come into the world, but men loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil. Everyone who does evil hates the light, and will not come into the light for fear that his deeds will be exposed” (John 3:19–20 NIV).

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