Last week, hundreds of millions of people around the world revisited the familiar story of the birth of Jesus. As the story goes, it came during a census of the Roman provinces of Judea and Syria that brought a couple named Joseph and Mary to a town called Bethlehem. Amid […]
While it is not very common for parents or grandparents in the US to open bank accounts in the names of young children, it is a common practice in many other countries, where it can be done to avoid inheritance or other taxes. Many people are unaware that children have […]
An offer in compromise (OIC) is a useful option for many people in resolving tax debt. If the IRS accepts your offer, the OIC procedure allows you to settle your debt for less than the full amount you owed. The OIC program keeps changing, however, and it is important to […]
There has always been a gray area between core government functions and the use of private enterprise. With IRS regulation changes allowing private contractors to participate in tax audits, the tension in this gray area has already begun to increase. According to a recent Forbes article, Microsoft has filed an injunction […]
In part one of this post, we outlined efforts by the IRS to crack down on paid tax preparers whom the agency considers incompetent or deceitful. The penalties that the IRS can seek against return preparers are both civil and criminal. But as we noted, the agency’s main enforcement program […]
The sheer complexity of the U.S. tax code causes many taxpayers to seek assistance from a paid tax return preparer. Most preparers do a creditable job. Many do outstanding work. But the IRS has long been concerned about incompetent or untrustworthy preparers. The concern is that such preparers can harm […]
In part one of this post, we noted that criticism of the IRS’s whistleblower program is heating up again. Not surprisingly, one of most vocal critics is long-time IRS gadfly Charles Grassley, a U.S. senator from Iowa. In this part of the post, let’s look in more detail at what […]
The IRS has a program to reward those who blow the whistle on unpaid taxes by others. It offers financial incentives to disclose tax evasion, especially within large organizations. For years, critics have contended that the program is not as effective as it should be. One such critic, Sen. Charles […]
It’s been awhile since we last discussed the issue of worker classification on this blog. But the question of whether a worker is properly classified as an independent contractor – thus enabling the employer to avoid payroll taxes – remains a lively one in Texas and across the country. In […]
This is an update to a post we did earlier in the week on the trial of former Swiss banker whom U.S. authorities had charged with criminal conspiracy for allegedly helping Americans evade taxes on undisclosed foreign accounts. As we noted in our November 3 post, Raoul Weil, a former […]