Tax Law

    • 27 Jul 2015

    Proposed Regulations Clarifying I.R.C. Section 1022

    The Internal Revenue Service, in Revenue Procedure 2011-41 , provided guidance on the interaction of I.R.C. Section 1022 with other income tax provisions. Treasury promulgated proposed regulations to become effective on being made final that essentially adopt the position of the revenue procedure with regard to I.R.C. Sections 684 , 691 , 1221 , 1231 , 1245 and 1250 1250; however, the proposed regulations omit any discussion...
    • 30 Jun 2015

    Reasonable Cause Exception to Estate Tax Failure to File or Pay Penalties

    Editor's Note: Portions of this article are excerpted from Matthew Bender's How to Save Time & Taxes Preparing Fiduciary Income Tax Returns ... [A] fiduciary can be liable for penalties for failure to file a decedent's or estate's tax return and failure to pay a decedent's or estate's taxes... Under IRC Section 6501 , the three-year statute of limitations on the assessment of tax deficiencies...
    • 21 Apr 2015

    IRS Ruling: LLC Members Not Limited Partners for Employment Tax Purposes

    by Stephen Looney* In CCA 201436049 , (September 5, 2014), the IRS found that members of a management company LLC ("Management Company") were not "limited partners" within the meaning of IRC Section 1402(a)(13) and, therefore, were subject to the self-employment tax on their distributive shares of income of Management Company. Under the facts of the ruling, a limited liability company classified...
    • 21 Apr 2015

    College Booster Club Contributions

    [1] Introduction Not all transfers of value to qualified charitable organizations are deductible. When you buy a book from the college bookstore, your payment is not a contribution; you got what you paid for. If you give $300 to your local public radio station, and they give you a tote bag, you've made a charitable contribution, but you have to subtract the value of the tote bag from your deductible amount. [ For...
    • 8 Apr 2015

    Estates and Trusts and Final Regs Under IRC Section 1411

    Basics of the Net Investment Income Tax. The Net Investment Income Tax (NIIT) is imposed by I.R.C. Section 1411. The NIIT applies at a rate of 3.8 percent to certain net investment income of individuals, estates, and trusts that have income above the statutory threshold amounts. The NIIT went into effect on January 1, 2013. [ IRC § 1411 , added by , §1402(a), Pub L No 111-152 (Mar 30, 2010).] (See Chapter 3...
    • 17 Feb 2015

    Rules Regarding Miscellaneous Itemized Deductions for A Trust or Estate

    [1] In General For estates and non-grantor trusts, miscellaneous itemized deductions will be subject to the two percent floor of adjusted gross income for the estate or non-grantor trust if it would be subject to the two percent floor for an individual. [ Treas Reg § 1.67-4(a) .] An exception is provided to the two percent floor, however, if the cost would not have normally been incurred by an individual but was...
    • 21 Jan 2015

    Assessing U.S. Tax Consequences of a Departure from the Euro

    by Edward A. Renn and William J. Kambas * Editor's Note : A complete expanded version of this article will appear in the March, 2015 edition of Lexis® Federal Tax Journal Quarterly . ... Investors are well advised to continue monitoring the European debt crisis. As we start 2015, snap elections in Greece scheduled for late January have renewed concerns that one or more countries might not stay in the...
    • 13 Jan 2015

    The Exclusion for Cancelled Mortgage Debt Income

    by Suellen M. Wolfe * Introduction ...As the tax incentive for mortgage debt relief expired at the end of 2013, Congress' 2014 agenda includes tax extenders. Over 50 tax breaks expired at the end of 2013. As part of the tax extenders, Congress is considering extending the reinstatement of mortgage debt relief by extending the terms of the Mortgage Debt Relief Act. [See e.g., HR 2260, 113th Cong. , 2d Sess. ...
    • 22 Dec 2014

    Treasury's Inexorable Slide Toward Unitary Taxation

    Your authors have long maintained that the most sensible system for taxing business operations is reflected in the unitary system adopted by California, among other states. The system is sensible because it avoids arbitrary shifting of income and expenses among related entities. Under the unitary system, corporate existence is simply disregarded and the tax is imposed on the business unit as a whole, irrespective of which...
    • 10 Dec 2014

    Congress Piddles, Twiddles, and Resolves - But to What End?

    In a song from the musical “1776” (“Piddle, Twiddle, and Resolve”), John Adams sings the following: I do believe you've laid a curse on North America, A curse that we now here rehearse in Philadelphia. A second flood, a simple famine, Plagues of locusts everywhere, Or a cataclysmic earthquake, I'd accept with some despair. But, no, you sent us Congress-- Good God, sir, was that fair...
    • 30 Nov 2014

    NFL's Tax-Exempt Status In Jeopardy?

    One of the hot tax topics in 2014 has been the National Football League (NFL) and the league’s tax-exempt status. Various legislative actions have been introduced to potentially eliminate or minimize the league’s exemption. Most recently, Senate Finance Committee Member Maria Cantwell, D.-Wash., (along with Senators Harry Reid, D.-Nev., and Tim Johnson, D.-SD) introduced a bill on September 18, 2014 to revoke...
    • 13 Oct 2014

    Final Treasury Regulations Issued on Back-to-Back Loans

    by Ronald :Levitt * Treasury Regulations addressing basis increases for back-to-back loans made by S corporation... have been finalized without substantive changes [to proposed regulations issued in 2012] other than changes to the effective/applicability date and minor clarifying changes. [ T.D. 9682 .] ... In general, the proposed regulations followed the recommendations made by the American Bar Association...
    • 7 Oct 2014

    Loving v. IRS and Tax Return Preparer Regulations

    by Kimberly Stanley, J.D., LL.M. * Introduction Like more than half of United States taxpayers, you probably pay someone else to prepare your federal income tax return. Although about 40 percent of paid return preparers are attorneys, CPAs, or enrolled agents, the remaining 60 percent have no professional credential or license at all. [ Rev. Proc. 2014-42, 2014-29 IRB 192 (July 1, 2014) ]... In 2012, the IRS...
    • 30 Sep 2014

    Final Regs on Itemized Deductions of Estates and Non-Grantor Trusts

    Like individuals, trusts or estates may deduct ordinary and necessary administration or nonbusiness expenses that are paid or incurred during the tax year. [ IRC §§ 212 , 641 ; Treas Reg §§ 1.212-1(i) , 1.641(b)-1 .]Miscellaneous itemized deductions are allowed to the extent that they exceed 2% of adjusted gross income. In May 2014, final regs were issued providing guidance as to those costs incurred...
    • 25 Sep 2014

    Trojan Horse -- The ACA's 3.8% Medicare Surtax

    Editor’s Note : This EIA is excerpted from chapter 1 of the Matthew Bender publication New York University Review of Employee Benefits and Executive Compensation – 2014 , available on Lexis.com, Lexis Advance, and in print HERE . ... In part, the Affordable Care Act created an entirely new income tax in the form of what has been labeled the "Unearned Income Medicare Contribution." The flagrant...
    • 2 Sep 2014

    Message to Treasury: Flex Your Muscles! Who Needs Lawmakers?

    In today's political environment, there's no shortage of frustration over the virtual absence of substantive legislation coming out of Congress. The federal tax arena is no exception, of course. And what better target to focus on nowadays than big bad corporations who have the audacity to navigate Internal Revenue Code waters to do some tax planning! Apparently corporate tax departments will stop at nothing to...
    • 28 Aug 2014

    Ongoing Intrigue: Self-Employment Tax, Limited Partners, and LLCs

    On so many fronts, understanding federal tax discipline, and complying with its tenets, is a daunting challenge. Taxpayers with the best intentions, and the practitioners who serve them, face frequent 'head scratchers' in their concerted efforts to apply the IRC, regulations, and judicial authority to fact-sensitive situations. One of the countless problematic fronts is self-employment taxation and the application...
    • 18 Aug 2014

    Part II: Federal and State Tobacco Taxes -- On Fire or Just Smoking?

    by Daniel G. Mudd * In a follow-up to Part I (EIA 7184) [ "Basics of Federal and State Tobacco Taxes -- On Fire or Just Smoking?" by Daniel G. Mudd – Emerging Issues Analysis Commentary], which covered the Federal Excise Tax (FET) considerations for a company involved in the tobacco industry, Part II of this article focuses primarily on the state excise tax side of the business, including state excise...
    • 14 Aug 2014

    Court of Appeals Rejects Arguments that Instructions on Willfulness and Good Faith Were Reversible Error

    In United States v. Basile , 2014 U.S. App. 12388 (3d Cir. 2014), here , the defendants, husband and wife, chiropractors, engaged an asset protection firm who put them into offshore entities and bank accounts to avoid tax. The defendants took other actions to obscure their income and avoid tax. The defendants were intransigent in dealing with the IRS; their intransigence led to criminal prosecution. As often the case...
    • 13 Aug 2014

    Attorney Sentence Properly Considered Attorney Status and Deterrence in Tax Cases

    In United States v. McCord , 2014 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 86436 (SD OH 6/25/14), [ enhanced version available to lexis.com subscribers ], the defendant, an attorney, was sentenced by a Magistrate Judge to 60-days incarceration and 1-year of supervised release. The defendant appealed to the District Judge, alleging various grounds on why the sentence was too harsh. In one ground, he urged that the Magistrate Judge improperly...
    • 7 Aug 2014

    Sealing an Indictment Pending Arrest in Tax Cases

    I just saw this interesting case involving a lawyer indicted for tax obstruction, Section 7212(a), [ enhanced version available to lexis.com subscribers ]. The case is United States v. McBride , 2014 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 89455 (D. MA 2014), here . The count of the indictment, Section 7212(a), is here . This specific tax count does not play an important role, other than background, in the following discussion of the sealing...
    • 4 Aug 2014

    IRS Transfer Pricing Audit Roadmap's Potential Impact on U.S. Taxpayers

    by Barry Shott, Richard Barrett, Elizabeth Sweigart and Shwetal Shah * Summary. Improved cooperation, collaboration, and transparency continue to be key themes of the message from the Internal Revenue Service ("IRS") for both its own practitioners and the tax community. In another sign of this trend, the IRS released its new "Transfer Pricing Audit Roadmap" on February 14, 2014. Designed as a process...
    • 7 Jul 2014

    NYU Summer Institute in Taxation

    Dates: July 14-25, 2014 Location: The Westin New York at Times Square New York, NY Join today's leading national and international tax authorities during a series of in-depth sessions on state and local taxation, partnerships, consolidated returns, trusts and estates, federal wealth tax, and international taxation. These intensive tax conferences are ideal for the new professional who wants a solid foundation...
    • 26 Jun 2014

    U.S. Tax Implications and Considerations for Gift Transfers by Nonresidents

    Introduction In the absence of proper tax planning, making a gift may lead to disastrous results when the donor is a foreign person (nonresident alien) and is residing in a country that does not have the same concept of gift tax that exists under the Internal Revenue Code... ... [There are] important practical considerations that a donor and donee should review before making a gift both to correctly determine the...
    • 12 Jun 2014

    Booker Variances are More Common in Tax Crimes. Why? And Do They Disproportionately Benefit the Rich?

    Readers of this blog should be familiar with the name Ty Warner. He is the billionaire who cheated on his U.S. taxes big time (the financially big can cheat big) and, in addition, willfully failed to file the FBARs. He pled guilty to a reduced set of charges. He was sentenced to no incarceration. The Government is appealing the lenient sentence as an abuse of sentencing discretion by the sentencing judge. See When is...