Voices

In the blogs: Free for the taking

Tax Day giveaways; a big scammer busted; Sec. 475(f) elections; Generation C; and other highlights from our favorite tax bloggers.

Free for the taking

  • Taxable Talk (http://www.taxabletalk.com/): What to tell them about the plusses of certified mail over standard (and eminently losable) regular first class when it comes to mailing a return near a deadline. A look at other Postal Service add-ons that are cheap and help ensure that the IRS gets what you have coming to it.
  • Turbotax (http://Blog.turbotax.intuit.com): How systems for renewable home energy can save a planet and a tax bill.
  • Liberty Tax (http://www.libertytax.com/tax-lounge): After yet another rigorous season, who wouldn’t like a free shaved ice or a bag of bagels? A look at Tax Day giveaways.
  • H&R Block (http://blogs.hrblock.com/): Dire Education Dept.: What are a student’s options, particularly regarding outstanding tuition debt, when a for-profit school closes?

Shag bagged

  • Procedurally Taxing (http://www.procedurallytaxing.com/): In Rozin v. Commissioner, the Tax Court continues to instruct taxpayers on the interplay between restitution assessments and deficiency assessments with an opinion that brings clarity to the role of restitution assessments and payments.
  • Tax Girl (http://blogs.forbes.com/kellyphillipserb): Mastermind Sagar Thakkar, a.k.a. Shaggy, at the age of 24 already owns the distinction of allegedly running a headline phony-IRS phone scam. His reported haul from what the Better Business Bureau called the “most popular scam” of 2016? More than 10 million rupees a day.
  • Tax Analysts (http://www.taxanalysts.org/tax-analysts-blog): Our favorite headline of the week: “Switzerland – Their Lips Say Yes, But Their Eyes Say No.” How a country went from being the world leader in bank secrecy to an apparent leader in openness and transparency in nine years. Key word: apparent.
  • M&A (http://taxaid.com/blog/): A look at the ever-growing list of 145 offshore banks financial advisors now surrendering names to the IRS.
  • Don’t Mess With Taxes (http://dontmesswithtaxes.typepad.com/): Judge Neil Gorsuch has been sworn in to the U.S. Supreme Court. But what about the Tax Court vacancies and the large, politically motivated number of vacancies generally inherited by the Trump Administration?

Matters of location

  • Tax Policy (http://taxfoundation.org/blog): A review of Nebraska’s Unicameral Revenue Committee LB 461, an omnibus tax reform bill the provisions of which include revenue-contingent individual and corporate income tax reductions and agricultural property tax relief.
  • Mauled Again (http://mauledagain.blogspot.com/): Mileage-user fees have their supporters and their detractors. A look at both.
  • Roth & Co. (http://rothcpa.com/blog-index/): Blogger Joe Kristan looks at the looming tax deadline as a big day for budding day traders, the last day they can make a Sec. 475(f) election for their 2017 tax year. The two big effects of a Sec. 475(f) election.
  • Tax Vox (http://taxvox.taxpolicycenter.org): The early debate over a 2017 tax bill has been “an inside-the-Beltway game.” How does the American in the street feel?
  • Dinesen Tax (http://dinesentax.com/blog): So why does Iowa make you add federal SE tax to income?

Always growing

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