Uncle Sam has been hard up for cash for many years. On a national level, the scale is staggering: an estimated deficit this year for the U.S. government of $544 billion. Not surprisingly, with so much red ink, various proposals to put more collection capabilities in the IRS’s toolkit have […]
Category: Tax Controversy
In the first part of this post, we discussed some of the common questions that businesses often have about sales and use tax compliance. As we noted, such taxes do not only apply to sales. They can also apply to leases and rentals, and to some types of services as […]
Sales and use taxes are a big deal in Texas. It could scarcely be otherwise, given that Texas leads the nation in the percentage of state revenue coming from sales taxes. The percentage is nearly 83 percent, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. Small wonder, then, that the issue of […]
If you got a tax refund this year, or are expecting one, the infusion of cash is surely welcome. Sometimes, however, there are circumstances that can reduce your refund. This is called a refund offset. When can the IRS offset a refund? And how might the IRS change its procedures […]
The general rule is that personal expenses aren’t deductible on your taxes. But what if you use something partly for business and partly for your own purposes? In this post, we will explore that question, taking note of a recent Tax Court decision that sheds light on it. On its […]
A lot has been written about the Report of Foreign Bank and Financial Accounts (FBAR) disclosure requirements. The Internal Revenue Service has placed a lot of emphasis on offshore tax compliance. As more people realize they need to report foreign financial accounts, the number of these FBARs filed last year […]
There are several ways in which divorce can affect your taxes. If you have children, one of the issues is who gets the tax exemption for dependent children. We discussed that a few months ago, in our October 10 post last year. In this post, let’s look at the question […]
The U.S. Tax Court is an important forum for challenging IRS action in certain cases. Using its authority under Article I of the Constitution, Congress created the court to have jurisdiction over a number of different areas of tax law. But is there a lower limit on the size of […]
Depreciation is a term of art in tax law. It doesn’t refer directly to something losing value. It refers rather to tax deductions for businesses to reflect the cost of wear and tear on their equipment. Since 2003, these deductions have become increasingly complex. Legislation enacted during the first administration […]
One reason why tax compliance so challenging is that the federal tax code is always a moving target. The challenge isn’t only that the code is so complicated. It is that every year there is uncertainty about what Congress will include in it. One aspect of this is a set […]