The balance between state law and federal law is always a delicate one in America. In terms of political theory, it’s a fascinating interaction. After all, how can two sovereigns share the same space at the same time? In practical terms, the issues involved in implementing this balance are interesting […]
Author: Lawrence Brown
The United States Senate is investigating Apple for allegedly negotiating a “special tax deal” with the government of Ireland as part of its effort to keep its massive cash hoard (currently valued at over $145 billion) overseas. In fact, Apple has chosen to take out loans to pay for its […]
This is a follow up to our April 3 post on how tax audit chances increase with income. We noted there that while the overall IRS audit rate is only about one percent, it rises rapidly the higher a taxpayer’s income gets. But how does the IRS which upper-income returns […]
Four years ago, US tax probes into UBS found the bank aiding wealthy American clients evade paying federal taxes by placing their funds into secret Swiss bank accounts. The settlement, one of the largest in history, consisted of UBS paying over $780 million to the United States and, most controversially, […]
Let’s be honest, no one likes to pay taxes. But this aversion to giving up some of our hard earned money is usually offset by our desire to maintain a well-ordered society and infrastructure. Nevertheless, the “bad guy,” so to speak, in each country is usually the tax collector. In […]
Many tax controversies ultimately come down to a very basic question: Does something need to be counted as income? This is not a question that can be answered in the abstract. It depends, rather, on the specific provisions of a very detailed and densely-packed federal tax code and its state […]
If you owe money to the IRS, you know you are up against a formidable adversary. IRS tax liens and other collection mechanisms can target your property and bank accounts, leaving you with fewer and fewer options. That is why, for taxpayers in Texas and across the country who are […]
Like anything else, filing tax returns does not occur in a perfect world. There are many reasons why people fail to file that have nothing to do with tax fraud. Sometimes, for example, people simply get overwhelmed by life events, such as a death in the family, a serious illness […]
Concerns about the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA) have been deep-seated and widespread since Congress passed the law in 2010. On its face, FATCA is supposed to target tax evasion on offshore accounts. In practice, however, the new law has posed major implementation challenges. For taxpayers in Texas and […]
The IRS looks for revenue wherever it can find it. In recent years, for example, the agency has becoming especially aggressive at going after what it perceives to be unreported income from offshore accounts. Another example is worker classification audits. The IRS has done many of these in Texas, looking […]