The IRS released its annual Criminal Investigation report today concerning fiscal year 2013. The Criminal Investigation Division initiated over 5,000 cases and recommended over 4,300 for prosecution; the conviction rate of those cases prosecuted was 93 percent. This...
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IRS Issues the Annual “Dirty Dozen” List of Tax Scams for 2014
Today the IRS issued the annual "Dirty Dozen" list of tax scams for 2014, in which the IRS compiles a variety of common scams that taxpayers can encounter. See IR-2014-16. The release notes that while taxpayers can encounter these scams at any point during the year,...
Court of Appeals holds that the IRS does not have the authority to regulate tax return preparers
On Tuesday the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit found that the IRS had exceeded its statutory authority when it attempted to regulate tax return preparers. Loving v. Internal Revenue Service, No. 13-5061 (Feb. 11, 2014).The Secretary of the...
Tax Court disallows $499,000 charitable contribution deduction due to failure to obtain a qualified appraisal
Yesterday, the Tax Court issued a 63 page opinion finding that the taxpayers were not entitled to a $499,000 charitable contribution deduction for the donation of an apartment building to Volunteers for America because the taxpayers failed to obtain a qualified...
Post-Return Conduct Can Be Insufficient for Finding of Civil Fraud Penalty
On December 3, 2014, the United States Tax Court issued an opinion in Brown v. Commissioner, T.C. Memo. 2013-275, in which the Court found that the taxpayers were not liable for the fraud penalty under Internal Revenue Code (I.R.C.) section 6663(a) despite the fact...
IRS Launches “Get Transcript” Online Service to View, Print, and Download Tax Transcripts
Yesterday the White House issued a statement on The White House Blog regarding its Education "Datapalooza," an event intended to further the exploration of new apps and services advancing higher education. The White House blog post references a fact sheet describing...
National Taxpayer Advocate Releases 2013 Annual Report Urging the Adoption of a Taxpayer Bill of Rights
Today the National Taxpayer Advocate issued a press release to report the publication of the 2013 Annual Report to Congress. IR-2014-3. The press release emphasizes a few key items from the report: a recommendation that the IRS adopt a "Taxpayer Bill of Rights," and...
Husband not liable for tax where IRA distributions were made pursuant to forged withdrawal requests
In a case of first impression, the Tax Court held that a taxpayer did not fail to report income attributable to unauthorized IRA distributions where his former wife had likely forged the withdrawal requests and where he received no economic benefit from the...
‘Like kind’ property exchanges subject to new California bill
When using a Section 1031 exchange under the Internal Revenue Code, property owners can defer recognition of gain for "like kind" property exchanges. Under the IRS rules, tax on this property may not be due until the time that investors actually sell the...
Foreign Financial Institutions can now get more information regarding FATCA Resources and Support
The FATCA FFI List Resources and Support Information Webpage has been posted to the FATCA Website. In addition, the FATCA FFI List Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) have been posted to the FATCA Website.
