Welcome to TaxBlawg, a blog resource from Chamberlain Hrdlicka for news and analysis of current legal issues facing tax practitioners. Although blawg.com identifies nearly 1,400 active “blawgs,” including 20+ blawgs related to taxation and estate planning, the needs of tax professionals have received surprisingly little attention.
Tax practitioners have previously lacked a dedicated resource to call their own. For those intrepid souls, we offer TaxBlawg, a forum of tax talk for tax pros.
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David J. Shakow is counsel in the Philadelphia office of Chamberlain, Hrdlicka, White, Williams & Aughtry and is professor emeritus at the University of Pennsylvania Law School.
The Supreme Court's decision in Home Concrete raises new questions about the deference to be given to administrative pronouncements that conflict with prior judicial decisions. Unfortunately, the opinions of a divided Court leave practitioners to puzzle over the boundaries of its decision.
This article originally appeared in Tax Notes. Copyright 2012 David J. Shakow.
All rights reserved.
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The ...
Beginning with the 2011 tax year (i.e., for returns filed April 17, 2012 or later), individual taxpayers will be required to file Form 8938 if he or she has an interest in a “specified foreign financial asset” (“SFFA”) (click for additional information on FATCA requirements) that has a value exceeding a certain threshold. A Taxpayer has an interest in a SFFA if any income, gains, losses, deductions, credits, gross proceeds or distributions from the asset would be required to be reported on the income tax return.
The reporting thresholds differ depending on whether the ...
Recently, the IRS issued "Tax Tip 2012-39" regarding important issues concerning mortgage debt forgiveness. While anyone capable of reading this Blawg is capable of pulling that up from the IRS website and reading it, no action should be undertaken without making sure your tax professional has covered the positives and negatives of doing so.
Right now, a lot of people are "under water" on their home mortgage, and faced with possible foreclosure, short sale, or other transactions in which their mortgage debt is partly or entirely "forgiven" during this tax year. There are several ...
The Hiring Incentives to Restore Employment Act of 2010 (“HIRE Act”) enacted the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (“FATCA”). P.L. 111-47. FATCA greatly increases disclosure requirements and penalties on taxpayers with foreign accounts and assets. These reporting requirements will affect individuals beginning with the 2011 tax year, and are expected to apply to certain domestic entities beginning with the 2012 tax year.
FATCA reporting is in addition to the Form T.D. F 90-22.1, Report of Foreign Bank Accounts (“FBAR”) requirements and other foreign reporting ...