(From Accounting Today) Charleston, S.C.: A federal court has permanently barred preparers Latasha Failey and her sister Latoya Windham from preparing federal returns for others.According to a civil complaint, Failey and Windham prepared federal income returns in North Charleston from 2009 to 2012, continually and repeatedly preparing returns that claimed false deductions or credits to understate […]

Bankruptcy can in certain circumstances, wipe out tax liability. Chapter 7 bankruptcy will only discharge income tax liability. Therefore, gift, sales, estate, and self-employment taxes are not dischargeable. For the income tax to be dischargeable in a Chapter 7 case, the most recent due date for filing your tax return for the tax in question […]

My client is a near minimum wage food service worker.  She lives with her daughter and two grandchildren, in a house she bought, without financing, when she won a legal settlement.  The settlement was fully taxable and left her with a tax bill of about $97,000. My client spent most of the settlement money on […]

The Property is in contract.  All inspections completed.  You get the title report and find out for the first time that federal tax liens have been filed making it impossible to convey clear title.   The deal is in jeopardy. Will the IRS release the lien to allow the sale? The IRS will take the remaining […]

If a taxpayer is in serious financial hardship, the IRS can classify the tax as Currently Non-Collectible, suspending all collection action.  This means that the taxpayer will not be required to make any payments for a year or two if the taxpayer remains compliant with all other federal tax obligations, such as filing returns on […]

I have practiced law for more than 30 years, and I have represented many types of businesses, including contractors and builders, in their tax disputes with the IRS and state authorities.  There are many ways contractors and builders can get into tax trouble.  One of the most common is failure to make employment tax deposits […]

IRS Gets Happy (Pizza) (From Accounting Today) Happy Asker, the founder of a pizza chain based in Farmington Hills, Mich., that operated restaurants throughout Michigan, Ohio and Illinois, was sentenced last week to 50 months in prison for income and employment tax fraud. He was also ordered to pay $2.5 million to the Internal Revenue […]

(From Accounting Today) Two cases illustrate the effect that procedural rules—in these cases, statutes of limitations—have in determining the outcome of a taxpayer’s liability. In one, a taxpayer was entitled to a full refund of the assessed section 6707A penalty (for failure to disclose a non-listed reportable transaction) because the IRS assessment was untimely. In […]

Employment Taxes and the Trust Fund Recovery Penalty (TFRP) To encourage prompt payment of withheld income and employment taxes, including social security taxes, railroad retirement taxes, or collected excise taxes, Congress passed a law that provides for the TFRP. These taxes are called trust fund taxes because you actually hold the employee’s money in trust […]

Howard Stern Airs Taxpayer Phone Call to IRS  (From Accounting Today)  A phone call between a taxpayer and an Internal Revenue Service collection employee was broadcast on Howard Stern’s Sirius XM radio show when the IRS employee accidentally put himself on hold after calling into Stern’s show. The shock jock, known as the “King of […]