The Internal Revenue Service (IRS), like any self-respecting bureaucracy, sometimes makes mistakes. When those mistakes occurs, a taxpayer can make a “qualified offer,” which might lead to a settlement and obviate the need for a drawn out court battle. If the case nevertheless goes to Tax Court, and the taxpayer prevails in their case, they [...]
The following tale is the first in a two part series relating to a couple of recent decisions from the United States Tax Court. Both decisions center around the often-litigated topic of a taxpayer’s profit-motive and whether those taxpayers should have been the allowed the losses stemming from their breeding businesses. On December 21, 2021, [...]
Recently, I wrote an article for the Hennepin County Lawyer addressing some of the kinds of tax questions that non-tax attorneys receive from their clients. The text of this article is included below: Tax touches almost everything. As a tax attorney, this keeps my job very interesting. This also means that even non-tax attorneys likely [...]
Appearing in the October of 2021 issue of ALI CLE’s The Practical Lawyer is an article by Kathleen E. (Splett) Pfutzenreuter and Benjamin A. Wagner addressing a variety of tax topics that small and solo firm lawyers should be ready to answer. The tax topics covered include: when to talk to a tax accountant or [...]
The American Rescue Plan Act established the Restaurant Revitalization Fund (RRF) to provide support to eligible entities that suffered revenue losses related to the COVID-19 pandemic. Specifically, the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) will provide restaurants and other eligible entities with funding equal to their COVID-19 pandemic-related revenue loss up to $10 million per business [...]
Corporate income taxes are generally the responsibility of the corporation and not the individuals that own the corporation. However, there are circumstances where the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) can pursue an assessment of those obligations against the individuals. One of those methods of assessment is an alter ego and it is pursued when the IRS [...]
On March 25, 2020, the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) released guidance related to its “People First Initiative,” a program intended to respond to the challenges of Covid-19, by providing a variety of relief related to IRS deadlines and collection actions (for more information on the IRS’s People First Initiative, please see our previous blog articles [...]
In light of the current Covid-19 pandemic, the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) extended the April 15, 2020, filing and payment deadlines for federal individual income taxes for the 2019 tax year to July 15, 2020. Due to the pandemic, many taxpayers are finding themselves in difficult financial circumstances. They are unable to pay their [...]
The proper classification of workers is a decision that is critical to the success or failure of many small businesses. This is especially true in light of the on-going public health crisis, where margins have been squeezed to their absolute limits. For more information relating to the classification of workers, please see these previous blog [...]
There are many reasons businesses fall behind on paying their federal tax liabilities. Falling behind on certain kinds of taxes, sometimes called “trust fund” taxes, may result in the IRS assessing those taxes against the business owners, officers, or other individuals the IRS considers to be “responsible” for ensuring the payment of those taxes. Federal [...]