It never ceases to amaze me, the wide variety of companies that state agencies attempt to extort money from. Most states impose a sales tax on the sale or rental of tangible personal property. But what happens when the sale is part tangible personal property, part service (“known to the sales and use tax attorney as a “mixed transaction”)? Is the entire transaction subject to tax? Many states take the incredibly helpful, “it depends” approach and look to an even more helpful “object of the transaction” test. In reality, it truly seems like state agencies and courts reach a conclusion and fill in the reasons later.

By way of brief background, since the mid-1900’s, when states enacted their first versions of a sales tax, many courts created this “object of the transaction” test. The test attempted to formulate what the customer was really buying, product vs service. If it was a service Read More

Back on August 13, 2014, the IRS issued an update of the Internal Revenue Manual that sheds some light on what type of submissions might be ripe for audit under the streamlined procedures. For those unfamiliar with the Internal Revenue Manual, it is the “official source of instructions to IRS personnel relating to the organization, administration, and operation of the IRS.”[i] It contains instructions that IRS employees rely upon to carry out their responsibilities, such as procedures for processing and examining tax returns.

The most critical aspect of the update is an instruction that requires submissions containing five or more foreign information returns to be referred for examination.

9. To complete adjustments on Form 1040X filed under the SDO: Read More

Marian Morgan would not play ball with the U.S. government, and she paid dearly for that decision – a 405-month (almost 34-year) prison sentence. Her codefendants both wound up with very different fates.

Marian Morgan and her husband, John Morgan, ran a Ponzi scheme in Sarasota, Florida, called “Morgan European Holdings,” scamming people out of millions of dollars. They were indicted along with two others, but on more serious charges: one count of conspiracy to defraud the United States, seven counts of wire fraud, five counts of transfer of funds taken by fraud, six counts of money laundering, and three counts of falsifying income tax returns. Read More

It’s a fact of life that businesses get sued. Even if they win, there are legal and related fees. What if they lose and have to pay compensatory and perhaps also punitive damages? Perhaps also some fines to the government? What is deductible for tax purposes? A recent case from the First Circuit Court dealt with an action involving the False Claims Act with total damages of just over $486 million!

I had a blog post (9/02/14) about this case a few weeks ago, noting the challenging vocabulary used by the judge and a few quotes from Shakespeare he included.

This topic also raises an important consideration for tax reform purposes. Should any of these damages be tax deductible? Arguably, compensatory damages (for making the Read More

Summary

On January 30, 2014, Treasury and the IRS issued Proposed Regulations with respect to the disguised sale rules and the rules for allocating partnership liabilities (REG-119305-11). A major driving force behind these Proposed Regulations was the IRS’s victory in Canal Corporation and Subsidiaries, formerly Chesapeake Corporation and Subsidiaries v. Commissioner, 135 T.C. No. 9. (2010). In Canal, the Tax Court shot down a leveraged partnership structure by concluding that the contributing partner did not have a payment obligation with respect to the partner’s indemnity in large part because the terms of the indemnity were not commercially reasonable. Read More

The Internal Revenue Service (hereinafter the “Service”) released today new administrative authority for calendar year 2015 within Revenue Procedure 2014-61 that makes adjustments to more than 40 tax provisions, including the tax rate schedules, deduction levels, and many other tax provisions. It should be duly noted that Revenue Procedure 2014-61, is scheduled to be published in the Internal Revenue Bulletin 2014-47 on Monday, November 17, 2014 and can be cited here.

The primary adjustments included within this new administrative authority include, but are certainly not limited to:

• The tax rate of 39.6% affects singles whose income exceeds $413,200 (i.e., $464,850 for Read More

Now when I think of Halloween, I look forward to seeing all of the different costumes that people wear. Some are very extravagant and I am sure pricey. And for some they would like to know how that can be deductible. Since costumes fall under the category of clothing or uniforms, you need to be aware of what the tax law requires.

The tax law requires the following three elements for clothing useful only in the business environment to be deductible:

1. The clothing is required or essential in the taxpayer’s employment;

2. The clothing is not suitable for general or personal wear; and Read More

♦ It’s Halloween and when the man answers his door, there’s a well-dressed young boy there wearing a suit and matching tie, who says “Trick or treat”. The man’s a bit confused so he asks the boy what he’s dressed up as. “I’m an IRS agent”, says the boy, and with that, he snatches 40% of the candy, and leaves without saying thank you.

♦ Tax Accountant to his trick or treating child:

“If I’m going to take you all over the neighborhood begging for candy, then yes, I’m going to take half… it’s called a “Candy Tax”.

♦ Tax Payer to the Grim Reaper: Read More

Neutrality is Switzerland’s unwritten motto. This devotion to conflict avoidance kept the Swiss out of two World Wars. The Swiss are known for their diplomacy, hospitality, and the ability to keep a secret. So, it came as a shock when 73 Swiss banks joined ranks to inform the U.S. Department of Justice and the IRS, politely but firmly, that they would not be signing a proposed amnesty deal under FATCA.

The Basic Facts of FATCA

In March of 2010, the Department of Justice and the IRS were given a new enforcement weapon. The Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA) has three primary objectives regarding foreign financial institutions: Read More

What I love most about Colorado, more than the 300+ days of sun every year and the glorious rocky mountains, are the people. For the most Coloradans are risk taking job creators, starting new businesses from scratch out of their garages and turning passions for a hobby into a business with a profit motive.

Of course I surround myself with these people that live and play outside their comfort zone and quite often I am asked about the nuanced tax law implications of starting a new business. Specifically what might be the most appropriate business structure to form, if any, so I’ve decided to draft a post about this topic for general edification. Hopefully you find these words helpful. Read More

Wake up and smell the coffee! Its political season again and unfortunately it appears most candidates for State Governors and Congress are advocating a “tax the other guy” approach.

• “We need more money for the schools!”-Tax the Rich.
• “We need more money for the poor!” – Tax the oil companies.
• “We need more money for the seniors!”-Increase sales tax.
• “We need to fight Ebola!”-Tax the pharmaceutical companies.

We need money for good causes so therefore we need to increase taxes? Does that really makes sense? When a politician advocates increasing taxes they always try to Read More

Each year, more than 50,000 organizations apply to the IRS for tax exempt status. There are several steps involved in becoming tax exempt. Many do not realize that there is a difference in a non-profit organization and one that is tax exempt. Not all non-profit organizations hold tax-exempt status. According to IRS statistics, there were slightly over 189,000 returns filed in 2011 by tax-exempt organizations. However, the National Center for Charitable Statistics lists a total of 1,427,807 non-profit organizations. Obviously, many non-profits are not tax exempt, or at least, are failing to file a return.

Forming a Non-Profit Organization

The first step in forming a non-profit organization is to form a non-profit corporation. This involves filing an application with an appropriate official in the state in which the Read More