Until relatively recently, the number of individuals who bought and sold cryptocurrencies (crypto) and other digital assets was fairly small. Over the last few years, however, that number has continued to grow exponentially. As a result, there has been an increasing number of calls for government regulation on how individuals’ and businesses’ actions on crypto [...]
On March 9, 2022, President Biden signed an executive order setting out his administration’s strategy regarding digital assets: Executive Order on Ensuring Responsible Development of Digital Assets (Executive Order). The Executive Order is broadly concerned with protecting investors and consumers, guarding against illicit activity, and ensuring financial stability, both in the U.S. and in global [...]
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, [...]
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 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 [...]
It is not uncommon for small businesses to rely on friends and family for loans to assist the business in meeting operating expenses. This is even more true given the on-going pandemic. Small businesses are scrambling to make sure they can meeting their operating expenses. Unfortunately, many of those small business owners are so focused [...]
On March 25, 2020, the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) announced 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 additional information, please see our previous blog article regarding the People First Initiative here and the full [...]
On April 24, 2020, the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) issued an internal memo advising its employees that it would be recalling those employees involved in “mission critical” operations. This internal memo represents the most significant update to the IRS’s “People First Initiative,” a program intended to respond to the challenges of COVID-19 by providing a [...]
The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) announced, in a recent Information Release and Fact Sheet, that it is going to make more site visits to taxpayers who have delinquent-filed tax returns. Fact Sheet 2020-02 notes that this increased use of compliance strategies is being fueled by the IRS’s increased use of data analytics, research, and other [...]