IRS Notice 2024-72, provides relief for individuals and businesses affected by terrorism in Israel.
Tax Controversy & Financial Crimes Report
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July 2019
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Latest from Tax Controversy & Financial Crimes Report
FBAR: The Eleventh Circuit Holds That Willful FBAR Penalties are Subject to the Eighth Amendment Creating Circuit Split
Introduction
For years, FBAR litigants have made the commonsense argument that large willful FBAR penalties, which can exceed the value of the unreported foreign accounts themselves, violate the excessive fines clause of the Eighth Amendment. Until recently, every court to consider this argument has held that the Eighth Amendment did not apply. On August 30,…
Tax Court to Revisit Problematic Economic Substance Ruling
Last October, a District Court in Colorado turned the economic substance doctrine on its head. In Liberty Global, Inc. v. US, a District Court granted the Government’s motion for summary judgement and found that contrary to the plain language of IRC § 7701(o), there is no prerequisite requirement that the economic substance doctrine even be…
Cue Up Your Summer Movie Watch List: Crypto Reporting Goes From Lampoon to Hero [1]
Summers are the ideal time for movies, baseball, long and winding road trips across the U.S. in search of the perfect family vacation or, just as important, a reasonable crypto tax reporting form.
In response to the IRS’s April 2024 release of the draft Form 1099-DA (Digital Asset Proceeds from Broker Transactions), the crypto industry…
The IRS has started its own Employee Retention Credit Olympics
Coinciding with the opening day of the Olympic games, the IRS issued IR-2024-198, again stating that it will deny tens of thousands of ERC claims that, according to the IRS at least “show clear signs of being erroneous,” which adds to the 20,000 ERC claim disallowance letters mailed in December 2023. The IRS also…
Partnership Interest Sale Inventory Gain is Not U.S. Source Income
On July 23, 2024, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit reversed the U.S. Tax Court in holding that inventory gain recognized by a nonresident alien individual partner on the sale of her interest in a U.S. partnership was not taxable as U.S. source income.
The taxpayer in Rawat is a Canadian citizen…
What’s Next for International Reporting Post-Farhy?
Last April, in Farhy v. Commissioner, the Tax Court held that the IRS did not actually have authority to assess penalties under IRC § 6038. The result was devastating for the IRS, as it meant it did not have authority to assess penalties for failure to file Forms 5472, 8865, 926, and 3520. In a…
Should You File a Refund Lawsuit if the IRS Won’t Process Your ERC Claim?
As Employee Retention Tax Credit (ERC) claims pile up and the IRS shows no signs of lifting its moratorium on processing claims filed after September 14, 2023, businesses with unpaid legitimate ERC claims should begin considering, at least, whether to file refund lawsuits. Additional information is available here.
March 22 ERC Voluntary Disclosure Deadline Rapidly Approaching
The March 22 deadline for applying to the IRS Voluntary Disclosure Program (VDP) to repay improperly claimed Employee Retention Credits (ERC) at a discount is just around the corner. The VDP requires businesses to repay only 80% of the improper credits they received while avoiding penalties and interest. It is part of a larger federal…
IRS to Focus on High-Income Earners Who Have Not Filed Tax Returns Since 2017
The IRS is sending out over 125,000 collection letters to high-income taxpayers who did not file one or more federal income tax returns between 2017 and 2021. The IRS will send approximately 25,000 letters to taxpayers with annual incomes of more than $1 million and the rest to taxpayers with annual incomes between $400,000 and…