Corporate Tax Planning

This PodCast is about HSAs.  Congress passed a number of incentives in the Tax Relief and Health Care Act of 2006 meant to make Health Savings Accounts (or HSAs) more attractive to taxpayers.  We'll take a look at these provisions and consider their impact on our clients.The materials for the podcast can be downloaded from http://edzollars.com/2007-02-03_HSAs.pdf . This Podcast is sponsored by Leimberg Information Services, Inc. at http://www.leimbergservices.com Please visit our software, books, and PowerPoint Presentations site at http://www.leimberg.com

This is PART II of our two part PodCast, THE FUTURE VISION OF ESTATE PLANNING, a special presentation of Leimberg Information Services, Inc. (LISI) and is courtesy of the Wilmington Trust Company of Wilmington, Delaware.    Wilmington Trust Company has been hosting panel discussion seminars entitled, "The Future Vision of Estate Planning" in major U.S. cities throughout 2006.  WTC was kind enough to allow LISI to tape and share with LISI members its Wednesday, November 8th, 2006 program which was presented in Philadelphia.     The panel was moderated by Wilmington Trust's Managing Director and Trust Counsel for Wilmington Trust's Wealth Advisory Services (and frequent LISI commentator) Richard (Dick) Nenno and included other three renowned attorneys as panel participants, Francis (Frank) J. Mirabello, Esquire - partner and manager of the Personal Law Practice of Morgan Lewis, Pam H. Schneider, Esquire - founding partner of the law firm of Gadsden Schneider &

This PodCast deals with rulings related to the accountable plan rules, and how the IRS interprets the options for implementing those rules.  Specifically, we will focus on Revenue Rulings 2006-56 and 2005-52.The materials can be downloaded at http://edzollars.com/2006-11-25_Accountable_Plan_Per_Diem.pdf . This Podcast is sponsored by Leimberg Information Services, Inc. at http://www.leimbergservices.com Please visit our software, books, and PowerPoint Presentations site at http://www.leimberg.com

This PodCast is about the simplified method that businesses can elect to use to compute the amount of their refund for the federal long distance excise tax that the IRS finally agreed the law did not allow them to collect.  The simplified method is elective, and uses April and September 2006 phone invoices to compute a percentage that is applied to all telephone expense throughout the relevant period.Materials, including the IRS notice and questions and answers, can be downloaded at http://edzollars.com/2006-11-18_Telephone_Tax_Refund.pdf . This Podcast is sponsored by Leimberg Information Services, Inc. at http://www.leimbergservices.com Please visit our software, books, and PowerPoint Presentations site at http://www.leimberg.com

This podcast covers a number of recent tax developments, including dealing with the burning issue of whether a preparer must sign the client's copy of the return, a recent case involving again the question of what is alimony and the IRS's recent reprieve from the requirement that nonqualified deferred compensaton plans be in compliance with the (as of yet) not issued final regualtions by January 1, 2007.Documents for this podcast are available at http://edzollars.com/2006-10-06_ThisandThat.pdf . This Podcast is sponsored by Leimberg Information Services, Inc. at http://www.leimbergservices.com Please visit our software, books, and PowerPoint Presentations site at http://www.leimberg.com

This PodCast examines a provision buried in the Pension Protection Act of 2006 that involves "employer" owned life insurnace.  The provision in question renders the death benefit taxable to the extent it is greater than the premiums paid unless the policy both falls into certain excepted categories and the policy owner takes specific steps before the policy is issued to assure that the insured both gets proper notice and gives a proper consent.The materials are found at http://edzollars.com/2006-08-12_Life_Insurance.pdf . This Podcast is sponsored by Leimberg Information Services, Inc. at http://www.leimbergservices.com Please visit our software, books, and PowerPoint Presentations site at http://www.leimberg.com

This PodCast is about taxpayer advice and its reliability and its credibility in court.  Taxpayers get their advice from a lot of sources, and we often end up having to defend our own advice against other sources.  This week we have two cases that show that all advice is not created equal.  In the case of Lehrer v. Commissioner (TC Memo 2006-156) a taxpayer learned the hard way that selecting a preparer predominantly on which one computes the lowest tax is not necessarily the best way to end up well advised.And the case of Diem v. Commissioner (TC Summary 2006-121) is useful for those clients that will try and check your advice by calling the IRS for an answer and then reporting the IRS's answer to you (so, you know, you don't have to do any work on that one).  Mr. Diem was clobbered when it turned out an IRS employee's assurance that the program offered by his employer would be treated just like the workers compensation style claim he was giving up for tax purposes turned out not to be so

This PodCast provides coverage of FASB's Interpretation 46 that deals with uncertain tax positions.  The new interpretation will create some real problems for CPAs, especially those who both handle tax matters and have any sort of attest relationship with the client (including compilations, reviews and audits) that deals with GAAP statements.The materials can be downloaded from http://www.edzollars.com/2006-07-22_FASB_Podcast.pdf   , though the actual FASB interpretation needs to be downloaded from their site ( http://www.fasb.org/st/#int48  ) due to copyright issues-and you will want to download it. This Podcast is sponsored by Leimberg Information Services, Inc. at http://www.leimbergservices.com Please visit our software, books, and PowerPoint Presentations site at http://www.leimberg.com

This PodCast concerns reasonable cause for late filing.  The logic of the application of the IRC to specific situations at times seems to defy common logic. Here, we look at a specific example of such.  In this case, the Tax Court decided that a reasonable cause for late filing that allowed a taxpayer to avoid the late filing penalty was that the court believed the taxpayer in reality had mailed the return on time, even if as a matter of law the return was late filed.  This is an extension of the issue discussed in the October 2005 podcast on proving timely filing.The case in question is Gregorian v. Commissioner, TC Summary 2006-99.The materials can be downloaded from http://edzollars.com/2006-07-15_Late_Filing.pdf .Apologies for some of the audio glitches.  For various reasons, this week I used my Windows laptop to record the podcast--and, as should be clear, the machine proved "suboptimal" even though it used the same tools (hardware and software) as the old Mac iBook I normally us

This PodCast is about the tax implications of a prepaid purchase discount that may need to be refunded if purchase goals are not met.  The issue has resurfaced as the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals reversed the Tax Court in the case of Westpac Pacific Foods v. Commissioner.  The Ninth Circuit's views on this topic differ both from those of the Tax Court and the IRS, each of which has it own views on this topic.In the podcast, the question to be addressed is what do we tell our clients who are faced with this issue?  The materials for this podcast can be downloaded from http://edzollars.com/2006-07-08_Westpac_Advances.pdf . This Podcast is sponsored by Leimberg Information Services, Inc. at http://www.leimbergservices.com Please visit our software, books, and PowerPoint Presentations site at http://www.leimberg.com

This Podcast is about construction costs.  We take a look at the regulations under Section 199 as they define construction found at Regulation 1.199-3(m).  These definitions are key for anyone who works with clients in construction related entities.  The materials for this podcast can be downloaded at http://edzollars.com/2006-07-01_Construction.pdf . This Podcast is sponsored by Leimberg Information Services, Inc. at http://www.leimbergservices.com Please visit our software, books, and PowerPoint Presentations site at http://www.leimberg.com

This Podcast is about the importance of following proper form in corporate debt situations.  A few weeks ago (back in April) we looked at the case of Ruckreigel where a taxpayer lost an IRS challenge on whether a debt was truly from the shareholders to the corporation due to a failure to follow the necessary formalities.  This week, the taxpayers strike back with a taxpayer victory in the case of Miller v. Commissioner (TC Memo 2006-125) where the IRS fails in its attempt to reclassify debt that followed the proper form but which the IRS attempted to claim was really debt from the bank to the corporation.The taxpayer achieved victory on this point and the issue of whether the taxpayer was truly at risk as defined in Section 465, even though when all was said and done the taxpayer got out of all liability as the debt was actually paid by other investors who had guaranteed the entire loan structure.  This is an interesting case in showing the extreme importance of following proper form because, f

This Podcast considers technical security issues that arise when you are traveling and take your laptop with you to "stay connected" with your office and clients.  There are a number of risks that have been discussed in recent weeks on Steve Gibson and Leo Laporte's Security Now podcast that I wanted to discuss in the context of a tax professional.We look at how your system may be compromised and your data exposed rather easily by any other machine on a network you are connected to (incluidng a hotel high speed network or a wifi hotspot at your local coffee shop).  And by this I mean a machine of any other guest or patron of the shop, or just someone in distance of the hotspot.   As well, we discuss why wifi encryption does not address this problem, and why additional steps are necessary.  We also discuss the steps you can take to make your transmissions truly secure.The materials for this podcast can be downloaded from http://edzollars.com/2006-05-20_Secure_Data.pdf. This P

This Podcast covers TIPRA , the Tax Increase Prevention Act of 2005.  We finally have a 2005 extender bill, albiet missing a few extenders and with a few surprises (some good, some not so great).  The President signed the bill into law this week, so it's time to look at the details that were in the bill.The materials for this podcast can be found at http://edzollars.com/2006-05-20_TIPRA.pdf. This Podcast is sponsored by Leimberg Information Services, Inc. at http://www.leimbergservices.com Please visit our software, books, and PowerPoint Presentations site at http://www.leimberg.com

This Podcast is about loans, S Corporations, and reality engineering. Shareholder debt to S corporations has proven to be a minefield for shareholders and their advisers, and the taxpayer and their adviser in the case of Ruckriegel v. Commissioner managed to step on a shareholder debt/basis mine twice in two consecutive IRS exams.  In this case, the shareholders attempted to argue that loans from a partnership they controlled were actually loans to them from the partnership, followed by loans to the corporation.Or, to put it more correctly, their CPA attempted to argue that.  One of the problems in this case, beyond the simple fact that the form of the transaction (which the taxpayers had control over) did not agree with what they were arguing was the true substance, was the fact that neither the taxpayers nor their inside accountant were treating these loans as if they had traveled that indirect route.  The case points up the dangers of attempting to "after the fact" correct client missteps--a

This PodCast uses the case of Benson v. Commissioner, TC Memorandum 2006-55, to examine the issue of what constitutes adequate disclosure under Section 6501(e)(1)(A)(ii) for purposes of avoiding the otherwise mechanical application of an extended six year statute on substantial underpayments.  In this case, which the taxpayer ends up losing, the Court considers to what extent disclosures on other returns can "make up" for items not disclosed directly on the individual return.The text file for this podcast can be downloaded from http://www.edzollars.com/2006-04-08_Adequate_Disclosure.pdf. This Podcast is sponsored by Leimberg Information Services, Inc. at http://www.leimbergservices.com Please visit our software, books, and PowerPoint Presentations site at http://www.leimberg.com

This Podcast focuses on the issues and limitations involving the Cohan rule and its use in tax compliance and representation work. The materials can be downloaded from http://edzollars.com/2006-03-25_Cohan.pdf. This Podcast is sponsored by Leimberg Information Services, Inc. at http://www.leimbergservices.com Please visit our software, books, and PowerPoint Presentations site at http://www.leimberg.com

This PodCast covers issues involving payroll tax deposits, including the IRS and Social Security Administration recent caution about the use of payroll services to deposit taxes. This week we look at a case that invovled the embezzlement of payroll tax deposits by a payroll service, where the IRS successfully argued that the employer still was liable for the unpaid taxes even though they had believed the payroll service had deposited the taxes As well, we look at a case involving a shareholder who stumbled into a full trust fund penalty when he attempted to take back funds he had advanced the failing corporation when he discovered there were unpaid payroll taxes. The materials for the podcast can be downloaded at http://edzollars.com/2006-03-18_Payroll.pdf. This Podcast is sponsored by Leimberg Information Services, Inc. at http://www.leimbergservices.com Please visit our software, books, and PowerPoint Presentations site at http://www.leimberg.com

This PodCast examines the definition of a "qualified personal service corporation" and, perhaps more importantly, distinguishes a PSC from what is not. The podcast looks at the recent case of Ron Lykins, Inc. v. Commissioner, TC Memorandum 2006-35, where a corporation was held not to be a QPSC, and so could benefit from the lower tax brackets available to non-PSCs. Materials for the podcast can be downloaded from http://www.edzollars.com/2006-03-10_Getting_Personal.pdf . This Podcast is sponsored by Leimberg Information Services, Inc. at http://www.leimbergservices.com Please visit our software, books, and PowerPoint Presentations site at http://www.leimberg.com

This week's podcast pertains to the potential overuse of Circular 230 disclaimers.  It arose from a discussion that began on the California Society of CPAs TaxTalk group on Yahoo about the widespread use of Circular 230 disclaimers. There seems to be an unfortunately false belief among many in the professions involved that a standard disclaimer eliminates any and all issues related to the revisions last summer to Circular 230. The podcast discusses both the issues outside of Circular 230 that can arise from the indiscriminate use of this disclaimer, as well as those cases under the covered opinion rules when the disclaimer does not absolve the professional from having to issue a covered opinion. The materials can be found at this link: http://edzollars.com/2006-03-03_Disclaimers.pdf We also discuss briefly some technology matters, including a quick discussion of why it may be useful to listen to Steve Gibson's Security Now podcast. To check out what's available go to: http://grc.com/securityno