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
WebCPA reports that the American Institute of CPAs (AICPA) is asking the Internal Revenue Service to reconsider some of the fees it plans to charge for competency exams and fingerprinting as part of its tax preparer oversight program. The new fees would apply to individuals who are required to take the IRS competency examination in [...]
Tags: Announcements · IRS procedure · News · Regulation of Tax Preparers
Last year I wrote a post titled IRS Disbars CPA for Relying on Client’s Income and Expense Numbers about a disturbing trend by the IRS to draft private tax preparers and force them to work as IRS auditors without pay. Here’s what I said: Tax preparers are advocates for their taxpayer clients and do not work for the IRS. Even [...]
Tags: IRS Audits · IRS procedure · Regulation of Tax Preparers
Paul Caron discusses Danshera Cords’ Brandeis Law Review article Lien on Me: Virtual Debtors Prisons, The Practical Effects of Tax Liens and Proposals for Reform, 49 Brandeis L.J. 341 (2011): This Article discusses the harm that a notice of federal tax lien can cause an individual as a result of the effect of filing a notice of [...]
Tags: IRS Liens and Levies · IRS procedure · Taxpayer Rights
The following will come as no suprirse to anyone who has spent any amount of time dealing with the IRS and other government agencies. Michael Martinez of CNN writes: A new study by three universities shows that people holding positions of power with low status tend to demean others, one of the authors said. The [...]
Tags: IRS procedure · News · Taxpayer Rights
Tony Nitti has published a great piece over at The Tax Adviser which explains the current state of affairs on the issue of compensation of S Corporation shareholders. Here is the Executive Summary, but read the whole thing. S corporation shareholders generally prefer dividend distributions of their S corporations’ profits over compensation payments from the [...]
Tags: S Corporations · Tax Tips
WebCPA once again reports that the IRS is not following its own rules: The Internal Revenue Service isn’t meeting a self-imposed 30-day deadline of responding to written inquiries from taxpayers, according to a new report. The report, from the Treasury Inspector General of Tax Administration, found that of 73 correspondence cases sampled from the IRS’s [...]
Tags: IRS procedure · News · Taxpayer Rights
