The IRS is not the only one to conduct audits. The Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration (TIGTA) provides IRS oversight and occasionally audits how IRS procedures are working. Recently, it suggested improvements to address erroneous Earned Income Tax claims and persistently noncompliant return preparers. We have been following the topic […]
Author: Lawrence Brown
Shell corporations get a bad rap. There are situations when a shell corporation is not just legal, but makes good financial sense. Navigating through the legal intricacies that distinguish the legitimate use of a shell corporation from the illegal can be difficult. A recent case provides an example of an […]
America is now, at least in part, a so-called “side gig” economy. An estimated 25 percent of us now have side jobs to generate additional income. Such things as driving for a ride-share service like Uber or Lyft, dog-walking, renting out a residence part-time through Air BNB or Home Away, […]
The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) recently settled class action lawsuits representing over 400 conservative groups that state they were “improperly” delayed tax-exempt status, according to a recent report by USA Today. It appears the federal agency singled out hundreds of groups due to their ideological stances. These groups underwent additional […]
The current administration has pushed for tax reform, touting the need to reduce taxes and remove barriers to economic growth. In theory, this sounds great. In reality, it could cause problems for small businesses. The many problems are outlined in various news sources. A piece out of the USA Today Network focused […]
Actor and director Forest Whitaker recently made the news not for a new movie or television project, but instead for the resolution of a years-long tax collection case brought against him by the Internal Revenue Service (IRS). Procedural history, complete with taxpayer missteps The saga began in 2014, as Whitaker […]
Fraudulent business tax returns can come with prison time. That is the message the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) is trying to send with two recent cases. The federal agency recently sentenced three different individuals to imprisonment for errors on their corporate tax returns. How did corporate tax errors lead to […]
The employer is generally liable for the unpaid employment taxes. As the use of professional employer organizations increases, a recent case provides a warning. How does federal law define employer? This was at the crux of a case from earlier this year. Under the Internal Revenue Code, an employer has […]
Reducing employment tax fraud by third-party payers, professional employer organizations (PEOs), has been a federal initiative since 2014. A certification program was designed to require a PEO to notify the IRS of employers using their services. Yet as of March 31, 2017, only 123 PEOs had applied for certification. Our most […]
Disasters – including massive storms (like the hurricanes that recently struck the Southeast and Puerto Rico), fires, earthquakes, mudslides and floods – can result in the complete loss of a person’s belongings. In a catastrophic event, everything can be gone in an instant, including: Furniture Housewares Clothing Mementos/photos/heirlooms Electronics Financial […]