Taxes

Introduction Taxpayers, like all people, are risk averse for the most part; they want to avoid financial uncertainty to the greatest extent possible. This is difficult to accomplish when the Internal Revenue Service (“IRS”) regularly attacks certain issues, often concluding that taxpayers owe additional taxes, penalties, and interest for several years. It is also a

All across America, voters will be headed to the polls on Tuesday, Nov. 7, 2023. It’s an off-year for elections—the presidential elections aren’t until next year—but there are state and local races, as well as ballot initiatives, to decide. Voters will be pulling the lever to make choices on tax matters, including property taxes, wealth

Do tax opinions protect you from the IRS? Usually yes, provided that you get one early enough. That generally means having the tax opinion in hand before you file your tax return. Many clients and tax advisers have trouble saying exactly why one should get a tax opinion or how to use it. A tax

Wage increases are generally a great thing, but the added benefit of an income increase can be offset by the higher prices of goods in times of high inflation and the possibility of being nudged into a higher tax bracket. This phenomenon is known as tax bracket creep. The result? Not only do rising expenses

Weeks after the IRS announced a moratorium on processing new Employee Retention Credit (ERC) claims, the IRS has issued more guidance on the program. Specifically, the IRS has issued an opinion about whether an employer can rely on communications from the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) to determine whether they qualify as an “eligible

In this October 20th Forbes column, I claimed that Social Security’s website was projecting lower benefits for worker than it had just a few months back. This was confirmed today in an email that Social Security sent to recent visitors. One of my company’s Maximize My Social Security software users sent me the notice below,

Corporations report their total cash payments of income tax — federal, state, and foreign combined — but they don’t identify, nor does the IRS reveal, how much federal income tax they pay. We believe, however, that we can make reasonable estimates from information reported by publicly traded companies in their financial statements. The adjacent table

The IRS just released the 2024 contribution limits on qualified retirement plans, such as your 401(k). That’s crucial info for employees and executives who can participate in company nonqualified deferred compensation (NQDC) plans. Here’s why. For most NQDC plan participants, year-end is the time to be like an autumn squirrel and decide how much to

Share to Facebook Share to Twitter Share to Linkedin This episode of What’s Ahead discusses the newly released State Business Tax Climate Index from the renowned, nonpartisan Tax Foundation. It’s no surprise that almost all the states with the most benign business tax regimes are run by Republicans, while those with the worst are governed

Judge David Gustafson injected a good dose of common sense into the ongoing struggle between the IRS and the syndicators of conservation easements. His opinion in Mill Road 36 Henry LLC lays bare the nonsense that has created the syndicated conservation easement industry. The story starts with undeveloped suburban land acquired by real estate professionals

Spurring economic growth in America’s declining cities and regions has been a hard-to-achieve goal of public policy. There’s now hope that the Biden Administration’s new industrial policies, might boost growth where other efforts have failed. But the jury is still out. Industrial policy—supporting specific industries and sectors of the economy—has long been viewed skeptically by

The Internal Revenue Service on Wednesday opened the portal for car sellers to register with Energy Credits Online – a site that will allow dealers to dole out the federal electric vehicle tax credit of up to $7,500 to buyers as a discount. The move marks the latest step in making the federal electric vehicle

The IRS says that the amount you can sock away for retirement is going up. In 2024, individuals can contribute up to $23,000 to their 401(k) plans in 2024—up from $22,500 for 2023. And those playing catch-up get a boost, too: the catch-up contribution limit for employees aged 50 and over is an additional $7,500

There is nothing inherently wrong with forming and utilizing a charitable remainder annuity trust (“CRAT”) for tax-planning purposes; people do it all the time. Issues arise, though, when taxpayers claim positions generating benefits that arguably exceed those contemplated by Congress and the Internal Revenue Service (“IRS”). When this occurs, enforcement actions begin, and participating taxpayers

Many people are baffled about the status of conservation easement donations, which is logical given all that has happened recently. Among other things, courts ruled that the IRS violated the law when calling certain things as “listed transactions,” the IRS tried to salvage the situation by issuing Proposed Regulations, and Congress drastically changed the rules

In the second of a two-episode series, Tim Jacobs of Hunton Andrews Kurth continues his discussion of the energy credits enacted in the Inflation Reduction Act and the proposed regulations. This transcript has been edited for length and clarity. David D. Stewart: Welcome to the podcast. I’m David Stewart, editor in chief of Tax Notes

If you’re a regular reader, you know that I love Halloween. I bake treats. I play Halloween music. I buy tons of candy (no age limit for trick-or-treat at my house). And I decorate almost every room in the house—our family finds fake spiderwebs throughout the year like most people find pine needles weeks after

It didn’t take long for the newly minted House Speaker to make headlines. In his first major proposal as House Speaker, Mike Johnson (R-La.) introduced a supplemental appropriations package that would provide $14.3 billion in military assistance to Israel in exchange for slashing an equal amount of IRS funding. Inflation Reduction Act The IRS cuts

They say that relationships are all about timing. Putting aside the accuracy of that cliché generally, timing is certainly a key for taxpayers facing challenges by the Internal Revenue Service (“IRS”). Why? The law ordinarily provides that the IRS only has three years from the time taxpayers file particular returns to identify them as problematic,

Considering how soon Halloween comes after October 15 (October 16 in 2023), the extended due date for individual returns, having a tax horror story now seems really appropriate. The horror story came out on October 24 with the Eleventh Circuit decision in the case of Lee v US. Dr. Wayne Lee seemed to have done