By Usman Mohammad The ABA Tax Times Vol. 39 No. 3 – Spring 2020 Puerto Rico, American Samoa, Guam, The United States Virgin Islands, The Northern Mariana Islands—these are all United States territories or possessions. Individuals born in these territories are deemed by law to be either United States citizens or
By: Robert S. Fink LexisNexis 39th Ed. 2020 The 39th edition of “Tax Controversies: Audits, Investigations, Trials” has been published and is available on Lexis-Nexis. Authored by Kostelanetz & Fink co-founder Robert S. Fink and the attorneys of Kostelanetz & Fink, Tax Controversies is the recognized guide to all stages of tax examination,
By Megan L. Brackney Tax Notes Federal April 27, 2020 Given that combating tax fraud is a top agency priority, it is a good time to review the law and procedures related to tax fraud. In this article, Megan Brackney discusses the ways the IRS identifies and addresses fraud, the consequences
By Caroline D. Ciraolo Journal of Tax Practice and Procedure Spring 2020 Edition At the 35th Annual UCLA Extension Tax Controversy Institute, Caroline D. Ciraolo and her fellow panelists addressed international tax compliance and enforcement, including what’s old, what’s new and what we can expect going forward. “We cannot continue to operate
By Megan L. Brackney Tax Notes In this article, Brackney discusses the John Doe summons procedures and the decision partially enforcing a John Doe summons in Coinbase. She also identifies some practical considerations for taxpayers whose information may be turned over to the IRS in accordance with the summons. Full Article
By Juliet L. Fink The CPA Journal March 2020 Edition Section 7623 of the Internal Revenue Code (IRC) allows for the payment of financial awards to those who blow the whistle on individuals or corporations that have deliberately underreported or underpaid their taxes. Such awards are based on the amount ultimately
By Usman Mohammad The CPA Journal February 2020 Edition Foreign asset reporting—including the reporting of foreign retirement plans—is a high priority for the IRS, which in 2019 listed the “failure to report offshore funds” as one of its “Dirty Dozen Tax Scams,” and has done so for several years running. Individuals
By Megan L. Brackney Procedurally Taxing January 8, 2020 The Gifts That Keep on Giving Two young people moved to the U.S. as students. They met in graduate school and married. After graduation, they were offered jobs and were sponsored by their employers so that they could stay in the U.S.
By Megan L. Brackney Procedurally Taxing January 7, 2020 Reasonable Cause For all of the foreign information return penalties, reasonable cause is a defense. See I.R.C. §§ 6038, 6038A(d)(3), 6038D(g), 6039F(c)(2), 6677(d); Treas. Reg. § 1.6038-2(k)(3)(ii). The IRS applies the same standards for reasonable cause for failure to file income tax returns under I.R.C. § 6651 to failure to file foreign
By Megan L. Brackney Procedurally Taxing January 6, 2020 The IRS has been assessing more and more foreign information return penalties on taxpayers. It is difficult to find statistics on this point, as the IRS’s reports on tax penalties lump all “nonreturn” penalties into one category, which includes failure to file Forms
