In a recent case issued from the United States District Court for the Eastern District of California, the Court held that a Trustee’s reliance on the advice of a CPA that no trust income tax return was due was enough to establish reasonable cause for such failure and thus avoid late payment and filing penalties.[1]…
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We have previously written about the requirements to file a Report of Foreign Bank and Financial Accounts (“FBAR”) for foreign bank accounts held by US taxpayers pursuant to the Bank Secrecy Act.[1] In a recent case out of the United States District Court for the District of Idaho, the Court ruled that a decedent’s widow…
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The recent opinion from the United States District Court, Eastern District of Tennessee, continues the saga of the case of CIC Services, LLC (“CIC”) and has implications for taxpayers seeking to recover attorneys’ fees under the Equal Access to Justice Act (“EAJA”) and for its broader reflections on governmental fairness, particularly those looking to challenge…
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Most people believe that assets held in trust for their benefit, at least to the extent the trust assets were left in trust by a third party (such as, for example, a parent), to be exempt from the claims of their creditors. As a general rule, this belief is well founded. However, as for claims…
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In a recent case out of the United States District Court for the Middle District of Tennessee, the Court held that attorney fees awarded plaintiff’s counsel who was handling the case pro bono, that is, free of charge, were not income to the plaintiff who was represented by the attorneys receiving the fees.[1] In the…
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In a recent case out of the United States District Court for the District of Connecticut, the Court denied the IRS’ motion for summary judgment and refused to aggregate the gift of partial interests in real estate together for purposes of valuing the gifts and thus determining appropriate discounts.[1] The IRS alleged that no discount…
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So, we did not write on the first District Court case which was a loss for CIC Services, LLC (“CIC”) and Ryan, LLC(“Ryan”), the Plaintiffs. But, a Supreme Court decision gave the Plaintiffs another bite at the apple. This case involves Notice 2016-66 (“Notice”), the older-sibling notice to Notice 2017-10, in which micro-captive insurance transactions…
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In an ongoing breach of contract case,[1] in which the parties contested the treatment of certain transfers as either gifts or as compensation under a contract, the U.S. District Court of Arizona dismissed the portion of the plaintiff’s motion for summary judgment related to “gift tax damages” due to the fact that gift tax labilities…
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The United States District Court for The Western District of Virginia recently granted the government a default judgment against a law firm for nearly $220,000, plus interest and penalties, in unpaid federal employment taxes and unemployment taxes. U.S., v. Miller Law Group, P.C., et al.,[1] is a perfect example of one of the worst ways…
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