Personal Income Tax Planning

This PodCast is about the preparer standards and tax return positions. In the case of Wadsworth v. Commissioner, TC Memo 2008-171, we see a real world situation where a tax professional decided a position was not one that he could accept and what happened when the client decided to find another person who would take the requested position. As you might expect, the taxpayers don't fare well in the eyes of the court when they attempt to claim reliance on the advice of the professional that did sign off on the position. The materials for this week are available at http://www.edzollars.com/2008-07-28_Preparer_Shop.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 American Home Rescue and Foreclosure Prevention Act of 2008, taking a detailed look at a few tax provisions in that bill of interest. We look at the refundable first time homeowners credit, the property tax deduction for nonitemizers and the soon to start restrictions on the ability to get a full Section 121 exclusion if a property has not always been used as a principal residence that will apply to usage after January 1, 2009. Watch for the required IRS guidance on a number of these matters. The materials are available for download at http://www.edzollars.com/2008-07-28_Housing.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 impact of life insurance premiums and death benefits on an S corporation's accumulated adjustments account. It will focus on the more general issues of the relevance (and lack of relevance) of AAA for an S corporation and its shareholders, and how the item is computed. The materials are available at http://www.edzollars.com/2008-07-07_AAA.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 pertains to HSA Accounts. The IRS has issued guidance in the form of a series of questions and answers related to Health Savings Account in Notice 2008-59. This podcast covers some of the planning and design opportunities available under this Notice. Written materials for this podcast can be downloaded from http://www.edzollars.com/2008-06-30_HSA_Guidance.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 part two of a series on the proposed regulations for preparer penalties. . The materials are at http://edzollars.com/2008-06-23_Penalty.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 the first of what will be a series of two on the proposed regulations for preparer penalties. Considering the length of the regulations and podcast, the first hour is in this file to listen to and digest, with part two to be posted later. The materials are at http://edzollars.com/2008-06-23_Penalty.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 securing client data, the responsibility of all of financial services practitioners. A presentation by Ed Zollars at the Arizona Society of CPA's Financial Planning Conference serves as the basis for this podcast. The slides used for this presentation are available at http://www.edzollars.com/2008-06-16_Knocking.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 concerns a Court of Claims case that deals with an IRS examination and the imposition of the fraud penalty--a penalty the Court of Claims found was not justified. The case is the one of Gagliardi v. United States, 2008 TNT 98-20, and is instructive both in the outline of the law, as well as allowing us to consider the ways an examination like this could spin out of control and result in a taxpayer being assessed the fraud penalty in a case like this. The materials can be downloaded from http://www.edzollars.com/2008-06-02_FraudandtheDentist.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 pertains to a case involving a failure to meet SEP rules. Simplified employee pensions (SEPs) are a popular retirement plan for extremely small businesses, with one of the key attractions being that don't require many of the formalities of regular qualified plans. But that has led to taxpayers treating them too informally, and in this case(Brown v. Commissioner, TC Summary 2008-56) a taxpayer discovered the hard way what can be the consequences of failing to faithfully follow the simplified rules for this type of plan. The materials for this podcast can be found at http://www.edzollars.com/2008-05-26_SEP_Issue.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 deals with a Fifth Circuit ruling in Kornman & Associates, Inc. v. United States on whether a taxpayer who set up a Son of BOSS style shelter would get the benefit that was expected--and the taxpayer was disappointed. The case offers a chance to review the unusual impact that liabilities have in a partnership context, as well as the question of just what is a liability for this purpose. The materials for this podcast can be downloaded at http://www.edzollars.com/2008-05-19_Partnership_Liabilities.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 deals with the problems that might be encountered by a taxpayer who tries to hand file a return. In the case of Allnut, Sr. v. Commissioner, 2008-1 USTC 50,310 the taxpayer failed to make delivery as required by the regulations, and the court found that what the taxpayer had to live with the date a document could finally be documented as being in the District Director's office--which was less than year years before the date the IRS issued an assessment. Materials for this week are available at http://www.edzollars.com/2008-05-09_Hand_Carried.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 interplay between partnership taxation and tax shelters taken beyond the spirit of the law. Partnership taxation is one of those areas where things may not work exactly as many practitioners expect, and those unexpected workings are things that tax shelter promoters have attempted to make use of. But if you are going to try and use the technical details of the tax law to force the IRS to grant you a tax benefit that otherwise doesn't seem like something that should happen, it's helpful to follow the detailed requirements yourself. Unfortunately for the taxpayer in 7050 Ltd. v. Commissioner, TC Memo 2008-12, that didn't quite happen--and while one bullet was dodged, another problem proved fatal to the benefit the taxpayer was after, and the court never had to deal with whether the shelter actually would have worked if executed as it was supposed to have been. The materials are available at http://www.ezollars.com/2008-05-05_Sloppy.pdf . This Podcast is sponsored by Leimberg Inf

This PodCast follows the continuing saga of the self-employment tax and qualified joint venture. It analyzes CCA 200816030 issued by the IRS that outlines the "new improved" IRS position on self-employment tax and the Qualified Joint Venture election under "761(f).The materials for the podcast are available at http://www.edzollars.com/2008-04-28_SEandQJV.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 concerns the issue of whether "7502(c) provides the exclusive means to prove timely filing of a document by a taxpayer. What the Third Circuit had to say, the IRS didn't like hearing. In the case of Philadelphia Marine Trade Ass'n.-Int'l Longshoremen's Association Pension Fund et al. v. Commissioner, 2008 TNT 74-16 the Third Circuit held that the reports of the death of the common law mailbox rule were, in the words of Mark Twain, greatly exaggerated. That places the Third Circuit in the same camp with the Eighth, Ninth and Tenth Circuits, and opposed to the positions of the Second and Sixth Circuits. The materials for this podcast are located at http://www.edzollars.com/2008-04-21_Mailbox.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 pertains to the distinction between compensation income and gifts. Specifically, the issue is, Is a payment to a person taxable compensation income or a non-taxable (for income tax purposes) gift. The case in question is the case of Larsen v. Commissioner, TC Memo 2008-73.The materials for the podcast are at http://www.edzollars.com/2008-04-16_Gift_Comp.pdf.We also briefly discuss an interesting episode of a podcast I found on small service business operating issues at a place you might not look--check out http://macbreaktech.com/63/making-mac-your-business/ for an interesting listen that really isn't very MacIntosh (or even computer) centric--just a general discussion of issues facing small service businesses.. 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 pertains to Self-Employment tax issues. We look specifically at the case authorities we have (which are scant, and not terribly promising for LLC members), the IRS's proposed regulations that were controversial when issued, and what options exist for dealing with the issue today. We revisit an issue raised in a February podcast, as the IRS unofficially "clarifies" their position on the self-employment tax treatment of Qualified Joint Ventures that is presented in the Form 1065 instructions and were discussed in a podcast from back in January.The materials can be downloaded at http://www.edzollars.com/2008-03-24_Self_Employment.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 difference between an error and an accounting method. The question of whether a problem on a return was an error or a method of accounting is important. We'll look at the Sixth Circuit's ruling in the case of Huffman v. Commissioner, where the appeals court sustained the 20006 ruling of the Tax Court (126 TC 322) that the CPA's consistent flawed attempt to calculate inventory as prescribed by the regulations for the dollar-value, link-chain LIFO method. The resolution of this matter in favor of the IRS allowed the IRS to get at what would otherwise have been out of reach errors in years closed for assessment by moving that income into years that were open under the provisions of "481.The materials for this podcast can be found at http://www.edzollars.com/2008-03-17_CPA_Says_Error.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 an LLC debt restoration provision. We look at the Tax Court's second pass at the case of Hubert v. Commissioner, TC Memo 2008-46, a case sent back to the Tax Court by the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals to decide if the LLC debt restoration provision made the taxpayer the payer of last resort under the Sixth Circuit's test. The Tax Court comes back saying "No". The materials can be found at http://www.edzollars.com/2008-03-10_Risky_Business.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 Section 1031 exchanges of personal use property. The IRS has issued a safe harbor treatment for "1031 exchanges involving property that previously had or subsequently has personal use. Revenue Procedure 2008-16 outlines the tests taxpayers can meet to be given safe harbor status on the question of the properties being held for investment or business use to qualify for "1031 status.The materials for the podcast can be found at http://www.edzollars.com/2008-03-02_1031_Exchange.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 pertains to the issue of "timely filing", revisiting an issue last covered in a podcast back in October of 2005. This time we look at the Tenth Circuit's opinion in the case of Gibson v. Commissioner, a case that illustrates how a taxpayer who thought he was complying with the requirements to prove a timely filing of his Tax Court petition managed to find a way to not get the benefit he thought he had.The materials are available at http://www.edzollars.com/2008-02-25_Timely_Filing_PodcastII.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