The employer-employee relationship can often lead to disputes. These disputes are often settled out of court. Whether it’s a wrongful termination claim, a defamation lawsuit, or other employment-related litigation, these settlements often involve significant attorney’s fees. The taxpayer receives a settlement check, but a substantial portion goes directly to their legal counsel under a contingency…
Category: Tax
Does IRS Guidance Have an Expiration Date?
Food goes bad. Medications, skincare products, and batteries all expire. But what about IRS’s written guidance? Can IRS guidance go bad? What if it is guidance for a particular taxpayer and about a specific transaction or seires of transactions? What happens when tax laws change after the IRS has issued its determination? Can businesses continue…
How to Identify Physical Injury from Vague Settlement Agreements
Business owners and independent contractors sometimes receive legal settlements to resolve disputes. While most settlement proceeds must be reported as taxable income, payments for physical injuries or physical sickness can be excluded under specific sections of the tax code. This exemption can significantly impact the amount of tax due. The tax consequences focus on the…
Are Energy Investment Tax Credits Subject to Passive Activity Rules?
There are a number of benefits for investing in renewable energy projects. The energy investment tax credits is one such benefit. Given the specialized nature of energy projects, these tax credits are often sold to taxpayers as investments by firms that organize and operate these investments. After making the investment and receiving allocation notices from…
Can Self-Employed Taxpayers Deduct the Value of Their Own Time?
Small business owners and self-employed professionals often spend countless hours developing products, services, or processes that enhance their business operations. A construction contractor might spend weekends designing custom software to track job costs. An engineer might devote evenings to developing a proprietary modeling program. In these situations, many entrepreneurs wonder: if they had hired someone…
The Fine Print in the IRS Refund Payment Rules
Our tax laws have a number of arbitrary deadlines which often result in problems for taxpayers, rather than the IRS. Late submissions usually mean that the taxpayer ends up paying more tax than they actually owe. However, there are a few timing rules that apply to the IRS, one of which involves the time frame…
Avoiding Penalties: Choosing a Reliable Tax Return Preparer
With the tax season around the corner, a significant number of taxpayers are seeking the services of tax return preparers. This often involves choosing a preparer who has been recommended by friends and family members. Tax return preparers may be referred based not on their qualifications, but on their reputation for generating large refunds for…
Tax on Employer-Provided Lodging
Did you know that as an employee, you may be able to exclude the value of lodging provided by your employer from your income taxes? According to Sec. 119 of the Internal Revenue Code, there are certain conditions that must be met in order for an employee to exclude employer-provided housing costs from their income.…
Do Inaccurate eFile Forms Invalidate a Tax Return?
If a taxpayer signs an eFile form and there are defects in the information included on the form, does this invalidate the tax return that is eFiled? The IRS addresses this in CCA 201945027. This IRS memorandum addresses an eFile form where the person who signed the form for a partnership even though he had…
Paying Personal Expenses from Corporate Bank Account
Can you avoid paying tax by paying your personal expenses from your corporate bank account? Is avoiding tax that easy? No, our system doesn’t work that way. The Moacir Santos v. Commissioner, T.C. Memo. 2019-148 explains how the IRS handles these situations. Facts & Procedural History The taxpayer owns a engineering and paving company. It…