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Most Recent Posts

On Bitcoins, Tulips And IRS Tax Compliance

If you have been running a lot of bitcoin transactions in the last few years, you probably have a lot of unreported gains and losses.  As it turns out the idea of using bitcoins to have all these anonymous transactions might not have been the smartest thing that ever entered into some villainous brain.  The essence of the blockchain system means that there are many many identical copies of journals (I know they are called ledgers, but I think they are more like journals) that contain every single transaction with every single bitcoin ever.  If a public key can be associated with you, then all the transactions done with that public key are identified as yours.  There are things that mitigate this, such as the use of multiple public keys, but unlike cash which can go from hand to hand with no permanent record every bitcoin transaction is recorded – forever.

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Becket Fund Helps Clergy Intervene In Parsonage Lawsuit

The latest in the case is a proposed intervention by clergymen and religious organizations represented by the Becket Fund For Religious Liberty.  The argument is that they have more skin in the game than the IRS  since an FFRF win would affect them.  Quite grievously as they lay it out.  The proposed intervenors are Bishop Edward Peecher and Chicago Embassy Church, Father Patrick Malone and Holy Cross Anglican Church and the Diocese of Chicago and Mid-America of the Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia.  The Diocese has eight clergies who live in church-owned parsonages, who would be unaffected by this litigation, and thirteen who receive housing allowances.

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Online Travel Companies Win Another Round In Fight Over Occupancy Taxes

Online Travel Companies Win Another Round In Fight Over Occupancy Taxes

The Tax Foundation toted up the score on these cases in a paper by Joseph Henchman early this year noting that over the past decade state and local governments in 34 states, the District of Colombia and Puerto Rico have filed lawsuits against the likes of Expedia, Hotels.com, Priceline and Travelocity. Overall the online companies have been winning prevailing in 39 cases in 23 states while losing in ten cases in six states and the District of Columbia.  We should probably score this one as a win for the online companies.

The Tax Foundation seems to lean a bit to my theory that all this litigation is something of a white-collar jobs program.

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IRS Says Fixing Up Your Own House Is Not Charity

IRS Says Fixing Up Your Own House Is Not Charity

For better or worse, 501(c) status has significance beyond federal income tax.It can be relevant for property tax and sales tax exemptions and be a requirement for an organization to be able to serve liquor or run gambling operations in some jurisdictions.  And then there is the, in my view, extra dose of credibility that 501(c) organizations have along with the ability to access certain types of grants.

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IRS Coinbase Summons What Are You Going To Do When They Come For You ?

IRS Coinbase Summons What Are You Going To Do When They Come For You ?

You will often see the blockchain referred to as a ledger.  As I read the descriptions, though, I think that it is actually more of a journal.  Back in the day we would have various journals that item by item recorded things like purchases, sales, receipts and disbursements.  The totals from the journals would be “posted” to the ledger.  At year end, the income accounts would be closed.   To analyze an account was to show the exact transactions that went into that account.  A critical component of the process was to cut things off.  Beginning in the eighties, we entered a kind of brave new world thanks to databases.  Some of the systems designed to use them were focused on issues like inventory management with the accounting functions thrown in.  It sometimes seemed that it was like never being able to step into the same river twice.

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Ed Brown Thinks I Have A Staff – Go Figure

Ed Brown Thinks I Have A Staff – Go Figure

The only critique that I am going to present is that Mr. Brown makes it clear that he was being just a bit disingenuous when he managed to get his supporters to say that he just wanted someone to show him the law that required him to pay income tax.  The law is in Title 26 of the United States Code (The Internal Revenue Code) and for all the talk about how complicated and confusing the law is, the basic requirement illustrated by Sections 1, 61 and 6102 are not complicated.

What Mr. Brown apparently wants is to be shown a law that is in his view, as a United States Constitution Ranger, is valid.

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Thomas More Law Center Victory Over California AG – Big Win For Free Speech Or Dark Money?

Thomas More Law Center Victory Over California AG – Big Win For Free Speech Or Dark Money?

It does seem to me that this litigation is much ado about not much. The contributors are still disclosed to the IRS.  And if people are attached to their anonymity, they now have the much better option of donor advised funds.  The biggest player in that field now is probably Fidelity Charitable.  When they accept your recommendations to give to particular not for profits, it us up to you whether your identity is disclosed to the recipient organization.  If you run all your controversial contributions through Fidelity Charitable or some other donor advised fund, the only report going to the IRS (and by extension the California AG) will show that you made a contribution to Fidelity Charitable or some other donor advised fund.  The recipient organization will report that it received money from the donor advised fund.

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Tax Court Upholds IRS Penalties On Decades Old Cattle Shelter Losses

Tax Court Upholds IRS Penalties On Decades Old Cattle Shelter Losses

I think if I had been the judge, I would have told the IRS that it just wasn’t right to penalize this guy after all those years.  The purpose of penalties is to encourage compliance not rasie revenue and laying them on over twenty years late just does not do the trick.  Of course, there are many reasons why I am not a Tax Court judge and now we have just added another.  There are two morals here.  One is that having the people who sell you the tax shelter be the ones to prepare your return is probably not a good idea.  The other is that not only should you get it in writing. You should also make sure it is signed.

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IRS Denies Exempt Status To Christian Coffee Shop

IRS Denies Exempt Status To Christian Coffee Shop

You pay for the car behind you at the fast food window and get the attendant to hand them a card that mentions the name of the church. It’s non-confrontational, non-direct even, and may be effective in branding the church leading to visits to worship and further inquiries. We are evangelicals, you know, and a subtle way to offer good news is OK with me.

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