By way (once again) of Paul Caron (emphasis is mine): Smith: The APA’s Reasoned-Explanation Rule and IRS Deficiency Notices Patrick J. Smith (Ivins, Phillips & Barker, Washington, D.C.), The APA’s Reasoned-Explanation Rule and IRS Deficiency Notices, 134 Tax Notes 331 (Jan. 16, 2012): The D.C. Circuit’s confirmation in Cohen that the Administrative Procedure Act (APA) applies to [...]
Tags: IRS Audits · IRS procedure · tax court
Two years ago we addressed the IRS’s flawed refund procedure in False Refund Schemes and Backwards IRS Return Processing Rules. Today, Jay Weaver of the Miami Herald gives a distressing update in Scammers Steal IRS Refunds with Ease: “We are seeing defendants once involved in other types of crimes [such as drug trafficking] getting involved in identity-theft schemes, [...]
Tags: Individual Taxation · IRS procedure · News · Tax Crimes
IRS Commissioner Doug Shulman has come out for tax simplification: Most taxpayers want simplicity. They want to pay what they owe, understand what tax benefits they are entitled to, and not get tripped up by the system. However, today’s Tax Code is anything but simple. It is so complex that it makes it hard for [...]
Tags: IRS Penalties · IRS procedure · News · Regulation of Tax Preparers
Again, from Paul Caron: IRS to Wage ‘Full Court Press’ Against Homes, Retirement Accounts for Back Taxes Washington Examiner, Obama’s IRS to Initiate Full Court Press, Warn Tax Law Experts: As 2012 approaches, tax attorneys are sounding the alarm: The IRS will squeeze every cent it can and “it will be nastier than ever.” The [...]
Tags: IRS Installment Agreements · IRS Liens and Levies · IRS procedure · Tax Collections
WebCPA reports that the IRS increased the number of fraudulent tax refund claims it detected and stopped during the 2011 tax-filing season by 171 percent over the previous year: As of April 30, 2011, the IRS had identified 775,723 tax returns with $4.6 billion claimed in fraudulent refunds and prevented the issuance of $4.4 billion, [...]
Tags: IRS Audits · IRS procedure · Regulation of Tax Preparers · Tax Crimes
Tax Attorney and tax blogger Kelly Phillips-Erb said that an IRS agent hung up on her the other day in IRS Gone Bad: Are Things About to Get Worse? Over the years, I’ve represented a lot of clients. I’ve listened to hours and hours of IRS hold music. And I’ve had a lot of conversations with [...]
Tags: IRS procedure · Taxpayer Advocate
From Paul Caron: Kwon: Four Difficult Ethical Questions for IRS Lawyers Michelle Kwon (Texas Tech), The Tax Man’s Ethics: Four of the Hardest Ethical Questions for an IRS Lawyer, 9 Cardozo Pub. L. Pol’y & Ethics J. 371 (2011): The article explores the disagreement, particularly among academics, about whether government lawyers have greater obligations to [...]
Tags: Court Cases · IRS procedure
