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.
Popular Topics
Chamberlain Hrdlicka Blawgs
- Posts by George W. Connelly
ShareholderGeorge Connelly is recognized as one of the leading federal tax litigators in the United States. His practice focuses on IRS audit, collection and criminal matters including civil and criminal tax litigation matters, for clients ...
The Internal Revenue Code provides a basic exclusion from income taxation of the proceeds of a life insurance policy. However, what happens if a taxpayer surrenders the life insurance policy with loans against the cash value? The formal rule is that amounts received upon the surrender of a life insurance contract which are not received as an annuity are specifically included in gross income to the extent that they, when added to amounts previously received under the contract and excluded from gross income, exceed the investment in the contract. How this works was illustrated in the sad ...
Let's face it: employees are wonderful. We couldn't do without them. However, they can be expensive. Beyond their base compensation, employers must pay federal taxes – in addition to withholding the employee's share of income tax, FICA and Medicare, there is an employer’s share of Medicare and FICA that must deposited regularly. There's also annual FUTA tax, as well as quarterly state unemployment tax. And there are benefits, ranging from medical coverage, to vacations, to sick leave, to name just three, that employers must pay.
When business is down, it is natural to try to find ...