The Tax Court can be an unusually cruel place when it comes to deadlines. This is what a recent taxpayer found out in a Tax Court decision that denied their challenge of an over $4.6 Million dollar tax bill asserted by the...more
On June 30, 2023 the District Court in the Northern District of California granted a petition to enforce the cryptocurrency exchange Kraken to release customer information. Specifically, Kraken was ordered to produce the...more
11/6/2023
/ Crypto Exchanges ,
Cryptocurrency ,
Digital Assets ,
Enforcement Actions ,
Financial Markets ,
Financial Regulatory Reform ,
Financial Services Industry ,
Financial Transactions ,
FinTech ,
Income Taxes ,
Investment ,
IRS ,
Reporting Requirements ,
Tax Liability
On September 8, 2023 the IRS announced a sweeping effort to focus enforcement efforts on high-income individuals, partnerships, and corporations. On September 20, 2023 the IRS announced that it will establish a special...more
A hearing is scheduled for September 11, 2023 for interested persons and organizations to provide testimony on proposed regulations on the timing and approval process for penalties. Section 6751(b) provides that...more
Monetized installment sale transactions (“MISTs”) have been on the IRS’s radar for some time. On May 7, 2021, IRS Chief Counsel issued an advice memorandum, contending such transactions were “problematic” and “flawed”. And...more
Many people, myself included, can sometimes be accused of poor penmanship. As our paperwork becomes more and more electronic, we write less and less down with pen and paper. However, a recent decision from the tax court may...more
On June 21, 2022, the United States Supreme Court agreed to hear a dispute involving split decisions among the circuit courts on non-willful penalties. The Fifth Circuit parted ways with the taxpayer friendly decision of the...more
6/23/2022
/ Failure-to-File ,
FBAR ,
Foreign Financial Accounts ,
Income Taxes ,
IRS ,
Penalty Reductions ,
Regulatory Violations ,
Reporting Requirements ,
Tax Court ,
Tax Evasion ,
Tax Penalties ,
Tax Planning
Properly navigating the IRS labyrinth of rules and regulations is difficult and sometimes taxpayers fail to dot every “i” and cross every “t”. The results can sometimes be devastating for both individuals and small...more
Although the government bears the burden of production for penalties, this often involves nothing more than showing that the penalties were properly assessed. Penalty relief is usually only given when the taxpayer can marshal...more
Dealing with the IRS can be a dangerous labyrinth for the untrained taxpayer or their non-tax advisors. In a recent Federal court case, E. John Rewwer, et al. v. United States, the taxpayers filed the wrong form claiming a...more
All kinds of penalties are being assessed by the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) against taxpayers, and more can be expected in the future. In 1954 there were 13 penalties in the Internal Revenue Code, and now there are more...more
Once the IRS makes an assessment against a taxpayer, the taxpayer will receive several notices before the IRS takes enforced collection action....more
12/17/2021
/ Commercial Bankruptcy ,
Consumer Bankruptcy ,
Debt Collection ,
Income Taxes ,
IRS ,
Offers in Compromise ,
Tax Abatement ,
Tax Debt ,
Tax Levy ,
Tax Liability ,
Tax Returns
The IRS is vigorously litigating cases involving conservation easements they believe are abusive. One such case was Plateau Holdings, LLC v. Comm’r, T.C. Memo 2020-93 (Plateau I). In that case the Tax Court denied the entire...more
12/10/2021
/ Conservation Easements ,
Defense Strategies ,
Fair Valuation ,
Good Faith ,
Income Taxes ,
Internal Revenue Code (IRC) ,
IRS ,
Tax Court ,
Tax Deductions ,
Tax Liability ,
Tax Penalties
On November 30, 2021, the Fifth Circuit parted ways with the taxpayer friendly decision of the Ninth Circuit that non-willful penalties are capped at $10,000 per FBAR filing instead of the $10,000 per unreported bank account...more
12/1/2021
/ Enforcement Actions ,
FBAR ,
Foreign Bank Accounts ,
Income Taxes ,
Internal Revenue Code (IRC) ,
International Tax Issues ,
IRS ,
Offshore Funds ,
OVDP ,
Reporting Requirements ,
Tax Court ,
Tax Evasion ,
Tax Liability ,
Tax Penalties ,
Tax Planning ,
Tax Returns
Deadlines are important in legal matters, especially when it relates to tax issues. There are estimated tax deadlines, tax return filing deadlines, and a host of deadlines if a return is audited and any adjustments are...more
Businesses are started with good ideas and a lot of hard work. Companies are sustained by applying that same hard work to the challenges and problems they face along the way. ...more
The multiple rounds of stimulus checks as part of the COVID-19 relief legislation may have people believing that mail from the IRS is not always bad news. However, aside from isolated situations, most people still flinch at...more
The IRS has several tools in its arsenal to encourage compliance and audit and enforce those it believes are failing to comply. One of the most powerful tools is the John Doe summons. A regular IRS summons seeks information...more
5/6/2021
/ Bitcoin ,
Capital Gains ,
Coinbase ,
Crypto Exchanges ,
Cryptocurrency ,
Income Taxes ,
Investors ,
IRS ,
John Doe Investigation ,
Reporting Requirements ,
Virtual Currency
The Bipartisan Budget Act (BBA) was signed into law by President Barack Obama in 2015 and fundamentally changed the way partnerships are audited. Under the BBA, the IRS generally assesses and collects any understatement of...more
Shortly after I moved to Texas from Washington, D.C., a federal judge called me about a potential conflict with a party in a lawsuit I just filed. Once the conflict was resolved, and recognizing I didn’t have a Texas accent,...more
Cryptocurrency is more accessible than ever before. Banks are continuing to both implement procedures for and, in some cases, develop their own cryptocurrencies. Paypal allows users in the U.S. to buy, sell and hold select...more
1/29/2021
/ Bitcoin ,
Capital Gains ,
Cryptocurrency ,
Digital Currency ,
Financial Transactions ,
Income Taxes ,
Investment ,
IRS ,
Reporting Requirements ,
Tax Liability ,
Tax Planning ,
Tax Returns ,
Virtual Currency ,
Voluntary Disclosure