Highlights of some of our favorite tax-related blogs from the past week.
ABCs (and a TY) of the ACA
Taxing Subjects : Obamacare basics, including fee exemptions for not having coverage.John R. Dundon II EA : An EA’s four quotes regarding the ACA as we near the definitely-not holiday season. Samples give you the flavor: “ for sure the only thing we can rely on, barely ”, “N-I-G-H-T-M-A-R-E!” and a four-letter word with “ty” stuck on the end.
We Hold These Untruths
Mauled Again : Those who don’t know history are destined to write about it. A look at the misconceptions, ignorance and just plain garbage about the last century of U.S. taxes that now swirls through social media.H&R Block blog : For some your jaw will drop, for others it’s a trip down memory lane. “5 Small-Business Tax Myths,” including deducting for deodorant, and a client sticking a business decal on a car and trying to write off the oil changes.TaxProf Blog : TIGTA reports that IRS oversight of its staffers’ outside employment falls far short of preventing potential conflicts of interest. Of note: “IRS records indicate that in calendar year 2011, nearly 3,000 of the more than 6,000 active, full-time IRS employees who held jobs or participated in business activities outside the IRS did not obtain documented approval, as required by Department of the Treasury regulations and IRS policies.”Taxable Talk : Any blog that begins the week’s entry with “Sometimes you can’t make this stuff up” sure deserves a look, and here’s the story of imarriedanidiot.com, founders of which tried to pull a big scam on the IRS. Eventually, the real idiots weren’t determined to be in the wedding party.Don’t Mess With Taxes : Congressional questioners looked high, they looked low. A glance at the recent possible break in the hunt for Lois Lerner’s lost IRS e-mails, with their fleece as white as snow.Rubin on Tax : We’ve Run Out of Puns for the Word “Scam” Dept.: How recently the blogger himself received two messages on his answering machine “purporting to be from the IRS, advising me that I owe taxes and if I don’t call them back I may be arrested.” The beat goes on.
TEFRA-rah!
Tax Litigation Survey : All TEFRA all the time: A look at JT USA v. Commissioner, in which the Ninth Circuit overruled the U.S. Tax Court and held that a partner who had both a direct and indirect partnership interest could not make different elections concerning participation in the partnership tax proceeding.Procedurally Taxing : Guest blogger Andy Grewal brings his “keen eye for TEFRA issues” to bear on Petaluma FX Partners v. Commissioner, pending in the D.C. Circuit.
It runs like water
Tax Break: The TurboTax blog : No Thanksgiving dinner is complete without banter about shopping, but when the cranberry sauce becomes but a memory, “Are Black Friday and Cyber Monday Deals Really Worth It?”Musings of a Burbank CPA : How retirees can boost spending power chiefly by packing up for new digs. A look at a recent Money Magazine article on the subject.Tax Vox : On the docket: a California tax increase ignites yet another budget battle and tuition hike; how the re-election of Florida Republican Governor Rick Scott portends another $1 billion in tax cuts over the next two years; and the governing board of Washington State’s Central Puget Sound Regional Transit Authority votes to seek a combination of tax hikes to help fund expansions of a light rail system and support bus and commuter-train services.Roth & Co. : Roll’em: a “battle report from a skirmish in the state tax policy wars” writes large one state’s film tax incentives and they don’t always promise the bottom lines that dreams are made of.
Tips for clients
Taxes at About.com : Nuts and bolts of the foreign earned income exclusion.Tax Maven : Potentially one of you and your clients’ best friends in year-end planning time: the Roth IRA conversion.Tax Policy : Build it and they will come: a look at the five basic legal forms of business structures found in the U.S. -- C corps, S corps, sole proprietorships, partnerships and LLCs.Bond Beebe’s It’s Taxing : A look at recent IRS guidance on the IRA one-rollover-per-year rule and why it recently changed.
Gathering ye rosebuds
Thegleimblog : Welcome to new in-the-trenches blogger and EA exam candidate Dennis F., a CPA taking the EA exam “to gain taxation knowledge which will help him during tax season.” Welcome, Dennis, and now reap the relaxed rewards of a fine blog, for April looms.
