Many people have turned recently to providing services or renting their houses or cars to provide extra income through internet based sites such as AirBnB, Uber, taskrabbit etc. IRS reminds us that this extra income is taxable and should be reported. In general all income is taxable unless specifically excluded by statute. On the IRS […]
The Political Action Group Democratic Coalition Against Trump has filed a FOIA (Freedom Of Information Act) request to try and obtain tax records of Donald Trump. Although they claim that similar requests have been successful in the past it would be illegal for the IRS to honor it. IRC§ 6103 prohibits the release of tax […]
The appeals court for the District of Columbia just ruled against the IRS in a suit brought by various groups that were victims of the IRS targeting scandal. In spite of multiple violations of law, the IRS has failed to fully cooperate with congressional investigators and the DOJ refuses to prosecute those responsible, but the […]
Unfortunately, ID theft is a common concern for many of us. The Federal Government has put together a useful website to assist in dealing with the issue here.
US Olympic athletes who win medals receive a cash payment from the US Olympic Committee which under current law is taxable to the recipient. Current tax law says that all income is taxable regardless of its source unless specifically exempted by statute. Senator Charles Schumer is pushing legislation to exempt athletes from taxation for winning […]
Donations to qualified charities are tax deductible, but how do you know if a charity qualifies? The IRS has information about the topic and an online tool to look up and check the status of a charity here.
Federal tax law allows a married couple to exclude from income up to 500,000 in gain on the sale of their principal residence as long as they have lived in the residence at least two full years. A partial exclusion is also available if the home is owned for less than two years, but was […]
It’s refreshing to see someone in government held accountable for their mistakes. David Buffano won a recent tax court case against the IRS and got his tax bill eliminated because the IRS failed to assess the tax correctly. Even though the IRS had failed to file a Statutory Notice of Deficiency against the client which […]
In recent years, programs have been developed that allow a homeowner to make energy improvements to their residence and pay for them through an assessment on their property tax bill. Clients have asked “if it shows up on my property tax bill it must be deductible, right?” Wrong! Improvements to your individual residence do not […]
Country icon David Allan Coe, who wrote the hit song “Take this job and shove it”, has had a very successful career in country music. But,he has been less than successful in trying to avoid the long arm of the IRS. On Monday June 13th, he was ordered to pay nearly 1 million dollars in […]