As a result of the passage of the One, Big, Beautiful Bill Act (OBBBA), 2025 marked a major shift in how millions of American workers report their income and claim deductions. For the first time, tipped workers and overtime earners may receive significant new deductions, even if their employers aren’t yet required to separately track [...]
On October 24, 2024, Commissioner Daniel Werfel announced that the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) would end its practice of automatically assessing penalties for late-filed forms relating to foreign gifts or bequests, effective immediately. Contrary to popular belief, such penalties were frequently assessed against lower-income taxpayers, immigrants, and small businesses. The change in procedure, which relates [...]
In June of 2024, the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) issued guidance attempting to address the perceived inappropriate use of existing partnership rules related to certain related-party basis-shifting transactions. These basis-shifting transactions are intended to generate tax benefits without any meaningful economic substance. IRS exam teams have reported repeated instances of inappropriate basis-shifting practices by related-party [...]
On February 21, 2024, the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) announced that it plans to begin dozens of audits on business aircraft involving personal use, contributing to the Inflation Reduction Act’s efforts to improve tax compliance for high-income individuals and businesses. These audits will focus on aircraft usage by large corporations, partnerships, and wealthy taxpayers, and [...]
As discussed in part one of this series on art donations, a taxpayer who wishes to receive a tax deduction for their charitable donation of a work of art should take several steps in anticipation of the Internal Revenue Service’s (IRS’s) refusal to allow the deduction. In recent years, especially, the IRS has undertaken a [...]
The Employee Retention Credit (ERC) is a refundable tax credit for certain eligible business and tax-exempt organizations that had employees and were affected during the COVID-19 pandemic. The ERC Voluntary Disclosure Program is meant to help employers pay back the money they received after incorrectly filing for ERC claims. Businesses who incorrectly claimed the ERC [...]
Since the COVID-19 pandemic, the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) has had a long backlog that, due in part to funding received in the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022, it only began to catch up on in mid-2023. In the meantime, the IRS’s backlogs and delays might have lulled taxpayers into a false sense of security. [...]
Despite the relative rarity of an individual taxpayer’s file being brought to United States Tax Court or even audited, many taxpayers nevertheless fear the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) coming after them. This is not without good reason. Responding to an IRS audit alone can be time consuming and involves obtaining and compiling numerous documents. That [...]
In June 2016, William Canada, Jr. took the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) to bankruptcy court and won. Mr. Canada successfully challenged the IRS’s claim for a $40 million penalty, pursuant to IRC §6707, for failing to report tax shelter transactions under IRC §6111. Per IRC §6707, the IRS imposes a penalty on anyone who fails [...]