Highlights of some of our favorite tax-related blogs from the past week.
Just Super
Don’t Mess With Taxes : Cheat cheat, beat frequently: “Is Belichick’s coaching style like tax avoidance or tax evasion?” looks at the leadership style, we guess you call it, of the helmsman of the now-reigning NFL champs. Is cutting corners the only real way to triumph? Deflating notion.Tax Girl : Patriots 28, Seahawks 24, Taxpayers??: Just how much money goes into football’s biggest game. And how much comes out of various tax bases in one way or another?
Guest writers
Tax Policy : Alan Cole looks at a recent Washington Post editorial opposing repeal of the ACA’s medical-device tax (see “caving in to special interests”).Bond Beebe’s It’s Taxing : Blogger Billy Thomas looks at the congressional gift that keeps on giving, at least through the end of last year: extension of tax-free distributions from IRAs for charitable purposes, or a Qualified Charitable Distribution.Tax Vox : Kim Rueben on what we can all learn from the president’s “failure” to curb 529s, which was “pilloried from the left and the right as a tax hike on the middle-class” yet might have been “a net benefit to middle-income households.”
Due in court
Rubin on Tax : The IRS, a wrong year on an 872, an evaporation of the statute of limitations and how the Tax Court sorted it all out.Procedurally Taxing : A couple of cases on administrative costs: Milligan v. Comm’r, where the IRS mishandled a taxpayer’s appeal to the point of the Taxpayer Advocate having to intervene; and the District Court for New Hampshire’s United States v. Baker, which held that the service was not substantially justified in its position that an ex-wife’s real estate was subject to a lien from her ex-husband’s tax liability.Roth & Co. : Talk about bad reviews: A filmmaker who got an unprecedented $9 million in tax credits under an Iowa program is scheduled to walk one more red carpet: the one into jail after being convicted of fraud.Due Diligence : In this week’s roundup: “Trial Begins in Gruesome Medicare Fraud Case”; “IRS Issues Updated FBAR Guidance”; “Lap Dance of Luxury?” (our favorite headline of the week); “ Chronic Disorganization’ or False Tax Returns?” (we know which we’d pick); “New Twist in Medicare Fraud Arrest the Patients!”; “Hospital Group Settles Medicare Fraud Kickback Case”; “Audit Defense 101 Don’t Bribe IRS Agents!”; “ More Paper Than A Stationery Store’ ”; and (our second-favorite headline of the week) “Grandmother’s IRS Horror Story Money Laundering Post.”
Just keep talking
TaxMama : Mama handles the question of whether the owner of a rentable, occupied property (which is entering foreclosure) who stopped paying the mortgage months ago yet who still collects rent and reports it on Schedule E can still take depreciation.Our Taxing Times : EITC Awareness Day (not that you needed one) plus the bonus trivia question, “Who said; The Earned Income Tax Credit is the best anti-poverty, the best pro-family, the best job creation measure to come out of Congress?’ ”The Income Tax School : You know you didn’t (completely) get into this business to be the bearer of bad news to your clients, but “Brace Yourselves: The ACA Questions Are Coming.”Taxes at About.com : Ins and outs of claiming dependents.
Forward view
Thegleimblog : EA exam candidate Katherine K. relates how she’s “officially past the halfway point of EA Review Part 2 study.” Her take? “Should all be downhill from here!”
Can we get some service?
Tax Break: The TurboTax blog : The most wonderful question of the year: “When Will I Get My IRS Tax Refund?”H&R Block blog : All you spinning heads who’ve been reading IRS Document 6209 can check in here for the non-dizzying breakdown. Included: a gander at the IRS’s Master File.John R. Dundon II blog : Experience and result: Shepherding a marijuana dispensary through IRS Examination and Appeals functions.Taxing Subject s: This month’s key IRS deadlines.
Far-off lands
TaxProf : How the president wants U.S.-based companies to pay a minimum 19% tax on future foreign earnings, “capturing profits that are now often beyond the government’s reach.” Obama also wants a 14% mandatory tax on about $2 trillion in stockpiled offshore profits, “said two people familiar with his budget proposals.”The Tax Times : Avoiding taxes by hiding money or assets in unreported offshore accounts again makes the service’s annual Dirty Dozen scams. Good things never change.
