Many companies hire independent contractors for limited projects to reduce overall costs. Companies do not withhold income, Social Security or Medicare taxes for independent contractors and do not provide the same benefits generally offered to regular employees. It becomes the contractors’ responsibility to pay their own self-employment taxes and benefits. […]
Author: Lawrence Brown
It isn’t easy being a landlord. Trying to keep customer-tenants satisfied enough to renew their leases is often a frustrating and not necessarily lucrative endeavor. The tax code often isn’t much help either, with arcane rules limiting the ability of real estate owners to deduct losses. These rules concern what […]
As part of the 2010 Hiring Incentives to Restore Employment (HIRE) Act, the authority of the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) will soon reach across international borders to tax or fine foreign financial institutions (FFIs) and non-financial foreign entities (NFFEs). The FATCA Makes FFIs and NFFEs Do the IRS’s Dirty Work […]
A tax return preparer is any individual who accepts payment for preparing “all or a substantial portion of a tax return or claim for refund under … the Internal Revenue Code.” Making a little more income over tax season by preparing returns for family and friends could put you into […]
“It is better to give than to receive,” the old saying goes. Philosophers such as Peter Singer are exploring the deeper aspects of this statement, probing the sense in which giving is a key act of moral agency. There are, however, also plenty of fraudsters and scammers who take advantage […]
In February 2011, the IRS announced its 2011 Offshore Voluntary Disclosure Initiative (OVDI), a program that would allow those with offshore assets who had not previously declared and paid taxes on them to become current in their tax obligations. Motivated by the success of past disclosure programs and the need […]
The Justice Department’s Tax Division has continued its aggressive mission to obtain bank record information on U.S. citizen’s offshore accounts. As they describe it, the “top litigation priority is the concerted civil and criminal effort to combat the serious problem of non-compliance with our tax laws by U.S. taxpayers using […]
The IRS announced on February 8, 2011, a second voluntary initiative inviting taxpayers with hidden offshore assets to come forward. This initiative is intended to help people get current with their taxes related to offshore assets and will remain in place until August 31, 2011. Participants may face penalties ranging […]
We regularly represent taxpayers, businesses and tax preparers in Texas and beyond facing potential tax-related criminal investigation or charges by the IRS Criminal Investigation division. This week, the IRS announced in a news release that it had released its fiscal year 2016 annual report of Criminal Investigation activities. Criminal defense […]
On the campaign trail, Donald Trump said he would get rid of the federal estate tax if elected president. So far, it’s still around. To be sure, the estate tax only affects a small percentage of estates. But it’s part of a larger tax-planning picture that also includes two other […]