Dec 23
This year, taxpayers will receive a revised Form 1099-B form which contains additional transaction information. The new reporting rules arise from the 2008 Emergency Economic Stabilization Act, which laid out a three-phase process for submitting cost-basis information to the Internal Revenue Service. Commonly known as the bank bailout bill, the 2008 Emergency Economic Stabilization Act …
Permanent link to this article: https://betweenthenumbers.net/2011/12/new-rules-and-reporting-for-investment-gains-losses/
Nov 25
When a minority interest in a privately-held company is transferred, a discount from the value of the entire company is calculated to reflect the lack of marketability of such an interest. These discounts for lack of marketability (DLOMs) are important in many estate plans and related transfers. In August, 2011, the IRS publicly released a lengthy practice …
Permanent link to this article: https://betweenthenumbers.net/2011/11/irs-marketability-practice-aid-falls-far-short-of-its-potential/
Oct 20
On October 9, 2011, Governor Brown signed into law Senate Bill 459 regarding independent contractors. The law significantly increases the risks and penalties for misclassifying workers as independent contractors by imposing significant penalties on employers found to have engaged in a misclassification, as well as on non-lawyer advisors (like accountants) who advise an employer to …
Permanent link to this article: https://betweenthenumbers.net/2011/10/california-passes-tough-independent-contractor-law/
Oct 13
Many small businesses attempt to save taxes and employee benefit costs by classifying their workers as independent contractors. When business owners classify workers as independent contractors they do not pay the employer’s share of Social Security and Medicare costs, state employer taxes, state unemployment insurance taxes, and workers’ compensation insurance premiums. Independent contractors also do …
Permanent link to this article: https://betweenthenumbers.net/2011/10/irs-amnesty-regarding-independent-contractors-deserves-analysis/
Sep 23
The IRS has created two disclosure programs where approximately 30,000 tax cheats have come clean. The IRS has created these voluntary disclosure programs in a larger effort to identify and pursue U.S. taxpayers who avoid paying taxes by hiding assets in overseas accounts. Efforts by the IRS began in 2009, after Swiss bank UBS AG agreed to …
Permanent link to this article: https://betweenthenumbers.net/2011/09/30000-tax-cheats-confess-under-irs-programs/
Permanent link to this article: https://betweenthenumbers.net/2011/08/the-irs-400/
Apr 22
Occasionally one is faced with a moment of clarity; a choice that forces a display of where someone’s true priorities lie. This occurs when two professed priorities are placed at odds against each other. Congressional Republicans recently faced this dilemma. What was foremost on their minds? Is it reducing the deficit, making the government run sensibly like a business, or shrinking …
Permanent link to this article: https://betweenthenumbers.net/2011/04/spending-that-pays-for-itself/
Mar 25
A grantor retained annuity trust (GRAT) can be a tax-efficient technique for transferring to children property that the transferor expects to appreciate in value. The transferor (the “grantor” of the trust) creates an irrevocable trust, places property into the trust as a gift, and retains the right to a fixed payment each year until the …
Permanent link to this article: https://betweenthenumbers.net/2011/03/house-votes-to-reduce-grats-act-before-the-effective-date/
Mar 23
The Internal Revenue Service paid a $1.1 million reward to an anonymous whistleblower for information that exposed a tax fraud by Enron, Bankers Trust and others before the company collapsed. The whistleblower, a Wall Street banker who has chosen to remain anonymous to protect his job and career, received the maximum reward of 15 percent. …
Permanent link to this article: https://betweenthenumbers.net/2011/03/large-irs-whistleblower-payoff-encourages-others/
Mar 18
There is no time limit for the IRS to pursue a taxpayer for failing to file a prior year’s return when money is owed to the government. The same is not true from the taxpayer’s perspective. Time is ticking for those who failed to file a 2007 tax return upon which the government owes a …
Permanent link to this article: https://betweenthenumbers.net/2011/03/the-irs-may-get-over-a-billion-dollar-windfall-because-taxpayers-failed-to-ask-for-it/
Aug 22
The IRS 400
August 22, 2011
Although it sounds like a stock-car race, the IRS 400 is the four hundred largest Adjusted Gross Income tax returns. Of course the IRS does not actually publish the names, but every so often they publish the year-by-year statistics for that elite group of individuals. The latest publication covers from 1992 to 2008. For 2008 …
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