In the Blogs: Four Strippers and a Priest …

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

  • Due Diligence: In this week’s round up: “TD Banker May Be Liable in Rothstein Ponzi Scheme Case”; “Have an Account at RMB (Rand Merchant Bank)?”; “Accountants’ Worst Nightmare”; “FATCA and Swiss Bankers – Will the Swiss Continue to Cheat?”; “Tax Evasion or ‘Abuse of Sick Man’ ”; “Tobacco Tax Evasion”; “Huge Win in Bank of America Whistleblower Case”; “DEA Uses Tax Evasion Charge to Arrest Alleged Drug Kingpin”; “NY Rabbi Convicted of Tax Evasion”; and (our favorite headline of the week) “4 Strippers and a Priest Walk Into the SEC.”
  • Tax Girl: Only a Matter of Time Dept.: “Guilty Plea in One of the Largest, Longest Running Tax Fraud Schemes Ever” looks at the 29-year-old lady who pleaded “I sure did!” for her part in a scheme to steal nearly $65 million in bogus tax refunds (Accounting Today). We have to admire the scope and tenacity even as we’re suddenly happy with how we spent our 29th year. Also, Spanish tax authorities move forward with the evasion case of soccer star Lionel Messi.

Improving Service

  • Procedurally Taxing: Guest blogger Prof. Joni Larson of the Thomas M. Cooley Law School tackles an issue of proof in the penalty case Robertson v. Commissioner, wherein the Tax Court “continues its now-we-see-it-now-we-don’t treatment of the commissioner’s substitute for return (SFR).
  • The Wandering Tax Pro: Blogger Robert Flach has published the first issue of a new free online monthly newsletter for tax professionals “titled, appropriately, The Tax Professional.” The premier issue features a “solution to the question of a voluntary tax preparer credential” as well as a look at the NATP national conference and two IRS forms “that need improving.” We wish the publication all success and note that improving IRS forms offers what’s known in editorial writing as real job security.
  • Rubin on Tax: Rick Josepher’s analysis of the offshore enforcement environment in light of the new 2014 Offshore Voluntary Disclosure Procedures.

Gone to market

  • Taxes at About.com: If your clients play the market, first talk them either off the ledge or online shopping for round-the-world vacations (depending on how Wall Street did that day) and use this entry to remind them of investors’ deductions of various fees and expenses associated with managing portfolios.
  • CPA Tax Musings: Revisiting how to convince investing clients to quiet their inner voice of disquiet and let winning assets just do their thing, including quantity of investments to monitor, allocation to each and percentage formulas to tell when a holding truly does tank.
  • Tax Vox: The Treasury Department recently – and quietly – opened the door to permit eventual retirees (i.e., all of us) to shift a portion of their 401(k)s or IRAs into a deferred annuity that, like insurance products of similar ilk, guarantees golden years income. A look at the “two huge questions” raised.

ACA, APC and LOVE

  • Backtaxeshelp: ACA is shaping up as the three little letters that buffalo scads of taxpayers seeking – or thinking somebody just told them about – breaks in our new health-insurance universe. Blogger Rebecca Lake looks at how the new Advance Premium Credit could actually bump up the tax bill of some of your clients.
  • Tax Break: The TurboTax blog: And speaking of hazards to your health, what does getting married do to your ACA picture? Answers to the biggest insurance questions when one policyholder becomes two.
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