Category: IRS
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US Treasury to introduce IRS “sucker cards”
U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin announced that “Next week we will be unveiling the new 1040 and it will be a postcard as we promised.” After decades of moving Americans to a computerized online tax filing system the IRS is now reversing course and going back to promoting a physical post card based filing system…
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Checklist and tips on international tax issues
Taxpayers with financial interests both inside and outside the U.S. face the greatest risk of compliance complications with the Internal Revenue Service. We’ve known that collection of taxes on assets and income outside the U.S. has been a major focus of IRS over the past decade. Now the service is taking that effort a step…
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Bigger isn’t better when it comes to tax advice
Small law firms and accounting firms sometimes feel ‘pushed out’ when it comes to a client’s largest transactions like the sale of a business or estate property. That’s usually not a good thing. “reliance on a promoter takes the good faith out of good-faith reliance.” – Tax Court Justice Holmes There’s a powerfully clear and simple…
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Avoid IRS penalties with assertive strategies
Many of the penalties that IRS asserts on individual taxpayers and small businesses can be avoided with the right strategic response. Some or the penalty waiver procedures are straightforward, while some are not. Yet the strategies are not always apparent and sometimes even seasoned tax professionals are surprised by the favorable results. Tax penalties that…
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Annotated IRS Collection Statutes
This is an annotated copy of IRS statute controlling collection actions. 8.21.5 Collection Statutes Manual Transmittal November 17, 2015 Purpose (1) This transmits revised IRM 8.21.5, Collection Statutes. Background This IRM provides guidelines for verifying, updating, and monitoring statutes on collection cases in Appeals. Material Changes (1) Changes to this IRM are as follows: IRM Section…
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What to do if you owe money to the IRS: 4 steps to resolution
There is a clear and direct 4 step path to resolving IRS tax problems but you must follow this path in the proper sequence. An interesting discussion came up yesterday among tax professionals that indicates a need for us to communicate more effectively on the basic steps of resolving an income tax problem. By “income…
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Sample tax representation agreement
This page is outdated. A more recent version is available: Sample accounting services engagement agreement 2021 IF AFTER READING THIS YOU AGREE TO ALL THE TERMS, PLEASE RESPOND TO THIS EMAIL AND TYPE “AGREED“. PLEASE CALL WITH ANY QUESTIONS. SUMMARY OF THIS EMAIL Documents included: 1) Privacy policy, 2) Confidentiality Privilege Agreement, 3) Engagement Agreement,…
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#IRSFails
In this blog I’ve occasionally written about the extraordinary level of difficulty I’ve experienced resolving clients’ tax matters with IRS. Most recently posts like “Fun and Games With the IRS” and “Today’s adventures with IRS” attempt to document serious service deficiencies in a lighthearted and almost comical blog post. Today CPA Trendines covers the same…
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Fun and games with the IRS
Lately I’ve taken to venting my frustration with the IRS’s low level of telephone service with these posts that document the details. Today’s adventure was to make a telephone call that I hoped would be the final call after five long calls to resolve a delinquent tax and set up a payment plan. We had…
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IRS launches audits of bitcoin holders
Bitcoin is the largest and oldest cryptocurrency so it makes sense that IRS would take enforcement action against these account owners first. Some owners may have heard incorrect information that their transactions were not taxable or that IRS could not get their account information. Both of these are false. IRS announced last year that it…