Tax Blog/Blawg

Hardly a day goes by when some politician or editorial person doesn’t suggest that we don’t need the IRS or should simply do away with it. Most of them come in connection with suggestions for changing the tax system to something like a national retail sales tax. What these people fail to understand, and this writer is not challenging the sincerity of their views, is that without the IRS, our tax gap would explode geometrically.

We call our system a “voluntary” one, but we remain short of “volunteers”: there are simply too many people and businesses who don’t get around to ...

Well for starters, the IRS won’t be very happy!  Beyond that, the IRS has several avenues it can pursue. 

In extreme situations, such as where a taxpayer owes a considerable sum of money and has not filed for several years, the IRS may consider pursuing criminal liability under I.R.C. § 7203, which makes it a misdemeanor to “willfully” fail to file a Federal Income Tax Return.  This is rarely applied unless a pattern of three consecutive non-filing years are present, but potentially any single willful failure to file could result in this prosecution.  There is a six-year statue of ...

In an article published in Pennsylvania CPA Journal / CPA Now on November 16, 2020, Chamberlain Hrdlicka Philadelphia-based Shareholder Phil Karter discusses what you need to know about the IRS audit process.

“Despite the generally low rates of audits, the IRS tends to gravitate toward certain hot button issues that can increase the chances of instigating an examination,” explains Karter. “These include unreported income (especially where there is nondisclosure of foreign assets), excessive business tax deductions (particularly for Schedule C businesses), loss ...

People are always asking how long the IRS can wait from the time you file your return to conduct an audit of your income and expenses.  The simple, most definitive answer is "it all depends," so let's take a look at the rules. 

The time in which the IRS must conduct its audit is governed by what's known as a "statute of limitations."  That statute doesn't begin to run until you actually file a return.  Once you file a return, the IRS has three years from the time the return was filed (or, April 15^th of the year in which you file, if it is filed early) to conduct and complete an audit.  That means that the IRS ...

As we enter the final stretch of 2020, certain windows of opportunity are closing for many clients to lawfully reduce their taxes or obtain cash refunds of taxes paid.  Here we focus on a big and soon-expiring opportunity for clients with heavily distressed assets or investments, and in net loss situations for 2020, which is all-too-common in the midst of Covid-19. 

The opportunity, which is unique to 2020 and thus requires immediate attention, involves triggering losses in a manner to achieve ordinary loss treatment.  Triggering losses at year-end is an annual ritual for many ...

The IRS wants you to be entertained – in a twisted sort of way. The deductibility of employer expenses around entertainment, amusement, recreation, or qualified transportation fringes has a long history that most people would not find very entertaining. Just when many of us thought we understood what an employer could or could not deduct under Internal Revenue Code Section 274, the Tax Jobs and Creations Act of 2017, made the entertainment’s plot change dramatically. The boring documentary suddenly became a bit of a horror picture.

With those caveats, if you read no further ...

The Tax Cuts & Jobs Act (TCJA) includes Internal Revenue Code Section 67(g) which on its face suspends all miscellaneous itemized deductions for any taxable year beginning after December 31, 2017, and before January 1, 2026. But not all deductions are “miscellaneous itemized deductions” and thus some deductions are unaffected by new Section 67(g). When Congress enacted the TCJA in December 2017, many practitioners urged Treasury to clarify that the Act’s suspension of miscellaneous itemized deductions did not impact the ability of trusts and estates to deduct ...

As discussed in an earlier Chamberlain Tax Blawg, on August 28 Treasury issued Notice 2020-65 which defers the due date for withholding, deposit and payment of employee-side taxes imposed under Section 3101(a) (FICA) and corresponding taxes under Section 3201 (RRT).  Since the issuance of this Notice, there has been much commentary – in addition to consternation and hand-wringing on the part of clients – about a multitude of issues the Notice implicates. 

On September 8, the Texas Society of Certified Public Accountants added to this chorus with a comment letter to Treasury and ...

National law firm, Chamberlain Hrdlicka, has launched its Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) Audits and Investigations Practice. The interdisciplinary practice will leverage its extensive experience to protect PPP loan borrowers as they navigate the civil audit and review as well as PPP criminal investigations and enforcement processes.

Millions of businesses, sole proprietors, and independent contractors have obtained Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) loans. While these loans have provided vital funding to recipients impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic ...

On Friday, in response to an August 8, 2020 Presidential Memorandum, Treasury issued Notice 2020-65 which defers the due date for withholding, deposit and payment of employee-side taxes imposed under Section 3101(a) (FICA) and corresponding taxes under Section 3201 (RRT). This deferral is effective September 1!

No doubt this Notice will be the subject of fierce political debate. The day of the Notice’s release, Congressman Don Beyer of Virginia fired a first shot across the bow. In a press release, the Congressman accused the deferral of being a “gimmick” that “could hit ...