I subscribe to a few Linkedin tax professional groups and this week another attorney posted his new blog to the group page. His article states that as part of the new offer in compromise program, the IRS will accept payments to state and local taxing authorities for past tax liabilities as an allowable expense.
Without a doubt, there are more misconceptions about the statute of limitations concerning tax matters than any other area of law that I practice. It comes up in consultations, over the phone, at a party, etc. and the conversation usually starts out with the line, “A buddy told me…is that true?”
Ok. I admit it. I am not patient enough to wait for Olympic results in primetime. I had to peek. For some reason, I went to Yahoo Sports to check the medal count instead of ESPN. One of the lead articles immediately caught my attention. The headline – Winning a gold medal brings a $9,000… Read more
The following IRS news release was originally released on Dec. 16, 2008. Given the most recent report that home foreclosures went up for the first time in 27 months (read here), I thought I would pull this news release from the IRS archives as it is as relevant today as it was three and a… Read more
Are you dying to know what the IRS considers its highest priorities? … Probably not, but on April 5, 2012, IRS Commissioner Douglas H. Shulman outlined the Service’s list of priorities in a prepared speech before the National Press Club.
Over the past year, I have fielded a number of questions on the 1099-K, Merchant Card and Third-Party Payments, introduced in 2011. This reporting form requires companies that handle merchant card transactions or third-party settlement transactions to report gross receipts of certain payees. A payee is essentially someone who accepts credit/debit cards through a merchant… Read more
The following article is verbatim copy of IRS news release IR-2012-23, released on February 16th, 2012: “IR-2012-23, Feb. 16, 2012 WASHINGTON –– The Internal Revenue Service today issued its annual “Dirty Dozen” ranking of tax scams, reminding taxpayers to use caution during tax season to protect themselves against a wide range of schemes ranging from… Read more
On January 20, 2012, the IRS made two significant changes to its streamlined installment agreement program. First, the dollar threshold increased from $25,000 to $50,000. Second, the timeframe to pay changed from 60 months to 72 months. Basically, any taxpayer with a liability (after principal, penalties, and interest) below $50,000 is eligible for a streamlined… Read more
The following article is verbatim copy of IRS news release IR-2012-4, released on January 6, 2012: “IR-2012-4, Jan. 6, 2012 WASHINGTON — The Internal Revenue Service today released a new set of tax gap estimates for tax year 2006. The tax gap is defined as the amount of tax liability faced by taxpayers that is… Read more
Honest to God’s truth, not a single one of my clients intended to create the tax liabilities they now face. Tax debt is not a cause; it is a consequence of something else. It could be a liability produced by insufficient withholding, lack of adequate planning, or even ignorance of the law. The liability is… Read more
