President Merkin Muffley: Gentlemen, you can’t fight in here! This is the War Room! It’s that time of the month again (no, I’m not grouchy) when the great and powerful Dr. Tax O Sphere roams the online tax world in search of literary gems. As usual, the tax quack found several: Howard Gleckman of Tax Vox Blog gave [...]
Tags: Dr. Tax-O-Sphere · Tax Blogging
The U.S. Department of Justice announced Friday that a federal court in Las Vegas had granted a permanent injunction against the infamous Irwin Schiff and his partner, Cynthia Neun, barring them from preparing tax returns in the future. Schiff is that author of several anti-government books, including The Federal Mafia – How the Government Illegally [...]
Tags: Absurd Tax Protester Arguments · Tax Crimes
IR-2008-117 – The IRS announced the 2009 inflation adjustments late last week. The big changes affecting 2009 returns (returns filed in 2010) are: The value of each personal and dependency exemption, available to most taxpayers, is $3,650, up $150 from 2008. The new standard deduction is $11,400 for married couples filing a joint return (up $500), [...]
Tags: Announcements · News
Lois Weiner v. Commissioner – In a 47 page opinion Tax Court Judge J. Paige Marvel affirmed the IRS’s denial of the taxpayer’s request for innocent spouse relief under § 6015(b) and overturned the IRS’s denial of her request for equitable relief under § 6015(f). Denial of Innocent Spouse Claim The IRS argued that the [...]
Tags: Court Cases · Innocent Spouse Relief
Martin Nesbitt, the Treasurer of the Obama for President Campaign, and his several companies have numerous outstanding state tax liens, but the only tax lien anyone seems to care about is Joe the Plumber’s. Samuel J. Wurzelbacher (aka Joe the Plumber) asked a relatively benign question of Barack Obama at a rope line in Ohio two weeks ago [...]
Tags: Campaign 2008 · IRS Liens and Levies
Cynthia G. Wilcox v. Commissioner- This case involved a taxpayer who claimed foreign tax credits on her individual income tax returns. The IRS denied the credits because the taxpayer failed to prove that the foreign taxes were actually paid to the foreign taxing authority and assessed a § 6663 (civil fraud) penalty against her for claiming [...]
Tags: Court Cases · Credits · IRS Penalties · Tax Litigation
Internet Law News reports on the four KPMG employees and consultants who are being tried for concocting a scheme to help their wealthy clients avoid paying taxes on their capital gains. Prosecutor John Hillebrecht gave opening statements yesterday and told the jury, Ladies and gentlemen, you can’t lie to get out of paying taxes. Hillebrecht said the four [...]
Tags: News · Tax Crimes
