How to Qualify for and Request IRS Penalty Relief So, you failed to file or failed to pay your taxes for the first time in your life and now the Internal Revenue Service is hitting you with a penalty. Guess what? With the First-Time Penalty Abatement waiver, this mishap may be forgiven. History of the First-Time Penalty Abatement Waiver Back in 200...
Overview In community property states, each spouse is generally attributed one half of the community income. Unless a joint return is filed, this results in each spouse being liable for tax on their attributed portion of the community income. This article will explore what happens when community property is not properly allocated between married in...
How the Criminal Tax Investigation Starts and When You Should Worry In case you did not know, you can go to jail for cheating on your taxes. Although the odds of being convicted of a tax crime are extremely low, the IRS does conduct a number of criminal investigations each year in an effort to directly influence the American public’s confidence and...
Civil Penalties and Interest Explained Have you ever forgotten to file your tax return on time? What about missing the payment deadline if you owed taxes? Did you wonder why the “taxes owed” amount was not the entire amount you had to pay the IRS? This article, along with subsequent articles, will explain why. Congress has enacted a number of civil...
How the IRS Determines if Your Side Business is a Hobby With the COVID-19 pandemic, many taxpayers had the luxury of working from home. Companies have since changed their in-office policies to allow employees the continued ability to work remotely. Some employers have even altered their policies entirely, allowing employees to permanently work remo...
Why Public Perception of the IRS Varies and What It Means for Taxpayers Pretty interesting article from Jeff Simpson of taxprotoday.com outlining the various reasons different people either hate, fear, or just simply try to avoid the Internal Revenue Service. What may surprise some is that one particular study demonstrates that an individual's poli...
How to Avoid Unfair Tax Liability in Community Property States In Texas and eight other states, community property laws govern the interests of spouses in property and income acquired or earned during their marriage. In general, community property laws affect how a couple will figure their income on their federal income tax returns if they are marr...
Understanding IRS Levies and Your Rights Tax levies are scary and are extremely debilitating for all taxpayers. Levies involve the actual seizure of property to satisfy a tax debt. Under Internal Revenue Code (“IRC”) 6331(a), the IRS has the right to seize and sell “all property and rights to property.” This means real or personal property and tang...
Key Situations Where CPAs Should Consult a Tax Attorney Now that tax season is over and many CPAs are "relaxing" by getting back to their regular 10-12 hour days (or hopefully taking some well-deserved vacation), I thought it was a great time to share an article published in the Journal of Accountancy entitled "10 situations when a CPA should call ...
