When a rental home secured by a recourse loan is sold short you incur a loss on the disposition of the rental properties requiring the report of a sale as well as any income from the cancellation of debt. The cancellation of debt income is excluded from gross income to the extent you...
The IRS may impose a twenty percent accuracy-related penalty if it determines that there is a substantial understatement of income tax according to IRC 6662. You may avoid all or part of the penalty by showing that: (1) you acted in good faith, (2) the understatement was based on...
Attached is the summary of the IRS Stakeholder Liaison Meeting I attended on January 4th 2012 in Denver, Colorado as produced by Deborah Rodgers of the IRS. Some interesting insights were revisited. The most provocative discussion surrounded the comments made by Matthew Houtsma of District...
A foreclosure on rental property technically involves the sale of the property back to the lender. Form 1099-A Acquisition or Abandonment of Secured Property reports that the lender has repossessed or foreclosed on the property. Box 2 is the amount of the outstanding mortgage debt, and box 4 is the fair...
Quite often I get asked to seek penalty abatement relief for an IRS delinquency or set of delinquencies as part of helping taxpayers chart a path towards compliance. Today while perusing the IRS web site I stumbled across some text worth sharing that sheds some...
I received an interesting call today from a small business employer who was reported to the IRS by a disgruntled past worker who claimed that he was paid as an independent contractor (and received IRS Form 1099) when in actuality he believed himself to be...
We all know there are good and bad people everywhere, both inside the IRS and in the tax practitioner community alike. Routinely readers of this blog report specific and egregious allegations of tax practitioner misconduct in violation of United States Treasury Department Circular 230. It...
I was at the IRS Practitioner Liaison Meeting yesterday morning in downtown Denver where local IRS officials in positions of authority presented operational updates. In regards to medical marijuana dispensaries Matthew Houtsma, acting Associate Area Council spoke. I found his words intriguingly worth a blog...
Should A Husband & Wife Form an LLC to Invest In Real Estate? Literally the $1,000,000 question. A husband and wife formed a Limited Liability Corporation (LLC) that invests in rental real estate to protect themselves in event of a lawsuit. They want to know if...
Now is a GREAT TIME OF YEAR TO MAKE A CHARITABLE DONATION if you are so fortunate. When you make a donation to a charity you may be able to take a deduction for it on your tax return as long as you secure the...