Voices

In the blogs: Learn to earn

Uber problems; stay interviews; grandpa as dependent; in memoriam; and other highlights from our favorite tax bloggers.

Unto the breach

  • Due Diligence (http://www.mahanyertl.com/mahanyertl/): The drive to succeed can indeed go too far: The Department of Justice investigates Uber for possible bribery of foreign public officials during the car service’s expansion overseas.
  • Focus (https://sgcpa.com/resources/focus-blog/): Close to half the U.S. population could be affected by a recent cyberattack on credit reporting giant Equifax. Aside from asking who appointed this company lord overseer of our credit information in the first place, we wonder if there’s any comfort in Equifax also providing ID-theft protection?

Steele-y eyes

  • Taxjar (http://blog.taxjar.com/): Another look at South Dakota’s provocative sales tax law, including its deliberate “unconstitutional” and how proponents hope it will be the lever that flips over Quill.
  • Houston Tax Attorney (http://www.irstaxtrouble.com/category/tax-blog/): Tax losses for worthless debts often trigger IRS audits. On audit, it is common practice for the IRS to disallow the losses based on the debt not being worthless, the amount of the loss not being correct and that the taxpayer took the loss in the wrong tax year. Rutter v. Commissioner highlights taxpayers’ steps to limit IRS success with these arguments.
  • Taxable Talk (http://www.taxabletalk.com/): The IRS appeals Steele regarding charging for PTINs, “to no one’s surprise.”
  • Federal Tax Crimes (http://federaltaxcrimes.blogspot.com/): When is willfulness determined based on mental state and IRS administrative actions irrelevant regarding an FBAR penalty? Bedrosian v. United States takes an interesting look at the question.
  • Tax Girl (http://blogs.forbes.com/kellyphillipserb): Guest blogger Shaun Hunley (“sketch comedy performer turned tax attorney, blogger, amateur genealogist and Thomson Reuters editor”) tackles less being more when it comes to tax reform.
  • Procedurally Taxing (http://www.procedurallytaxing.com/): Designated orders for Aug. 28 to Sept. 1.
  • Tax, Society & Culture (http://taxpol.blogspot.com/): Exploring the link between perceptions of fairness in the allocation of international tax revenues and buy-in to the BEPS framework by developing countries.

Learn to earn

  • Rubin on Tax (http://rubinontax.floridatax.com): In light of the IRS reissuing proposed regulations that adopt new centralized partnership audit procedures that will replace current TEFRA audit rules, is it “Time to Revise Your Partnership and LLC Agreements?”
  • Solutions for CPA Firm Leaders (http://ritakeller.com/blog/): The advantages of stay interviews, where you ask a staffer exactly why in the world they keep working for you.
  • The Income Tax School (http://www.theincometaxschool.com/blog/): Back-to-school time — and not just for kids, but for tax pros who want to keep moving forward, too.
  • John R. Dundon II EA (http://johnrdundon.com/): Yes, normally your client has 60 days to roll over retirement plan distributions to avoid taxes and penalties. In several circumstances, however, the IRS has repeatedly given taxpayers additional time to complete the rollovers. Here’s a link to the pertinent revenue procedure and, more important, a discussion of the catch.
  • TurboTax (http://Blog.turbotax.intuit.com): Honoring ancestors is all well and good but let’s get right to the point: “Can I Write Off My Grandparent as a Dependent?”

Remembrance

  • TaxMama (http://taxmama.com): A subject sadly spot-on timely these days: taxes and disasters.
  • The Wandering Tax Pro (http://wanderingtaxpro.blogspot.com/): A fond look at a chronic last-minute filer and an old friend and classmate: Police Officer Maurice “Moe” Barry, lost bravely in the line of duty on 9/11.
  • Don’t Mess With Taxes (http://dontmesswithtaxes.typepad.com/): Sixteen years after the unthinkable happened, Mother Nature has twice so far delivered her own kind of terror. “There is no comparing these tragedies … but they share one important attribute,” namely strangers opening hearts, hands and homes, and volunteering. How to find ways to give when it counts most.
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