All too often, we see cases where failure to properly document a transaction or keep good records is a taxpayer’s undoing. A case recently handed down by the Tax Court illustrates how that can happen. In Moore v. Commissioner the taxpayer sought to expand his tax preparation business. To finance that expansion, Mr. Moore was able…
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It is helpful to remind taxpayers now and then that there do exist plenty of bad-apple advisors out there. Quite often, we at ESA find ourselves helping our clients wind-down, mitigate, and stop erroneous positions and planning put into by place by such bad-apple advisors. Our firm has even assisted in defending audits and tax…
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In a recent opinion handed down by the United States District Court for the District of New Jersey, the Court dismissed the taxpayer’s suit for a refund on the basis of lack of jurisdiction. The Court found the taxpayer failed to file the suit for a refund within the two year deadline set forth by…
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Introduction This is the second article in a series of articles we are doing on IRS audits. The purpose of this series is to demystify the audit process, inform readers about how IRS audits are conducted, and provide readers with an understanding of the audit process. In Part I of this series, we discussed how…
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By holding qualified small business stock (“QSBS”), noncorporate shareholders of qualifying C corporations can sell their stock tax free after a five-year holding period. Tax benefits associated with QSBS are nothing new. However, until recently, planning with QSBS has been neglected. The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (“TCJA”) breathed new life into the potential benefits…
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For a few months, the short and mid-term applicable federal rates have been on the heels of one another. These rates ride with treasury rates and the economy in general. For some reason, here lately the mid-term rates have been lower on occasion than the short-term rates. I even caught myself thinking, is this a…
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In a recent Memorandum opinion issued by the Tax Court, the Court held that the 60-day time limit for individual retirement account (“IRA”) rollovers was met for a distribution and subsequent recontribution of IRA funds despite the funds not being credited back to the IRA upon recontribution until 62 days after the initial distribution. The IRS…
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Introduction This article is the first article in a multi-part series of articles that I will be doing on IRS audits. The purpose of this series is to demystify the audit process, inform readers about how audits are conducted, and provide readers with an understanding of what to expect if selected for examination. This article…
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Timely mailing is timely filing. Seriously, it is. In the case of Curtiss T. Williams, we are reminded of how important it is to ensure compliance and maintain proof of compliance with the mailbox rule of the Internal Revenue Code. While really just a mundane case of a taxpayer getting his petition dismissed due to late filing,…
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Offshore and domestic asset protection trusts (“APT”) have been around for a while. Currently, there are seventeen states that allow a person to contribute assets to trust for their own benefit (i.e. a self-settled trust) and exempt those assets from claims of their own creditors subject to certain statutes of limitations and exception creditors. Other than…
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