In the Blogs: Nowhere to Go But Up

Highlights of some of our favorite tax-related blogs from the past week.

Contrary to popular belief

  • Tax Girl: This weeks’ entry in “Taxes From A to Z” is “N is for Nominee,” as in third-party holders of property.
  • TurboTax: Green is as green does: what to remind your clients about the tax savings in such Earth-friendly moves as renewable home energy systems.
  • Taxes at About.com: How new regulations tightened the rules for deducting repairs and maintenance expenses.
  • The Income Tax School: Our favorite opening of the week: “Contrary to popular belief, tax preparers aren’t robots.” You can debate this with your clients after the season, but here are some solid reasons to have a professional double-check your own work as the deadline pressure builds.
  • Solutions for CPA Firm Leaders: Not everything flows uphill in the world of running a practice. One thing that should in your own office: feedback, specifically that of your employees.
  • H&R Block: Your clients’ checklist before they move overseas.
  • Roth & Co.: AFRs for April. Plus, our second-favorite opening of the week: “Who is qualified to appraise your old laundry?” or what to tell them about charitable donations in all those plastic bags.

Nowhere to go but up

  • Tax Vox: This year as the deadline looms, chances of the IRS actually answering a customer service call are about twice as good as last year. Also, a pair of TPC events on deck for this week, and the Joint Committee on Taxation adds up the tax changes in President Obama’s budget.
  • Procedurally Taxing: Guest blogger Stuart Bassin, a former Department of Justice tax litigator, discusses the Sixth Circuit’s rebuke of the government’s position in the NorCal Tea Party Patriots case. 
  • Taxable Talk: How a recent appeals court decision should end speculation on Democrats’ claims that the scandal is a non-event in the wake of said NorCal Tea Party Patriots class-action suit regarding the IRS’s conduct.
  • Don’t Mess With Taxes: What the top four presidential candidates’ tax plans might mean for the blogger’s (and others’) future tax bills.
  • Mauled Again: A look at the recent Tax Court decision El v. Comr., which presented an issue of first impression – specifically, whether Section 7491(c) shifts the burden of production to the IRS when it asserts that the taxpayer owes the Section 72(t) 10% additional tax.

Big words

  • Due Diligence: In this week’s collection: “More Oil Patch Workers Denied Pay”; “What’s a Billion Dollars?”; “Workers Score Huge Supreme Court Overtime Victory”; and “Union Steward Claims Wage Theft.”
  • Federal Tax Crimes: A look at a recent article by Mark Matthews, a “prominent player” in tax crimes, that opens with how the IRS Criminal Investigation Division plays a serious role in the system.
  • Tax Analysts: Growth in the flow of financial information will soon itself grow from exponentially to logarithmically. Big words, big data and big opportunities for hackers.
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