IRS

You may consider adjusting tax withholdings or boosting 401(k) plan contributions to trim your tax bill. And Roth individual retirement account conversions or ...

You can stash $20,500 into your 401(k) for 2022, with an extra $6,500 if you're 50 or older. However, you need to watch for the "wash sale rule," which stops you from buying a "substantially identical" asset 30 days before or after the sale. However, a down market may be a great time to pay taxes on the assets you want to convert, Lyman said. Whether you typically receive a tax refund or a bill, there's still plenty of time to improve next year's filing, experts say. And if you're expecting a shortfall, there's ample time to adjust your tax withholding or make estimated payments for the third or fourth quarters, Guarino said. - Whether you typically receive a tax refund or a bill, there’s still plenty of time to improve next year’s filing, experts say.

Tax committees will express concerns over whether the IRS targeted James Comey, the former director of the FBI, and Andrew McCabe, his top deputy.

Rettig similarly has referred the matter to his agency’s watchdog, while his spokespeople have maintained that the IRS commissioner was not aware of any political interference and had no conversations about it with Trump, who first appointed him to the post in 2018. … He is the commissioner of the IRS, part of the administration. The developments have added to the pressure on Rettig, whose term is set to expire later this year. The IRS said in a statement that Rettig “always welcomes a chance to meet with members on tax issues and routinely flags areas of potential concern for key leaders of congressional oversight committees.” Some Democrats have called on him to resign in recent days. The privacy is necessary because the IRS is limited by law from publicly disclosing information about specific taxpayers, the sources said.

The public is right to sympathize with the two ex-DOJ officials for possibly being targeted by Trump's IRS, but the sympathy shouldn't end with them.

I’m not sharing these facts to downplay the seriousness of what Comey and McCabe seem to have experienced. Instead, and for decades, the IRS has been known to disproportionately target nonwhite people and poor people. Audits of wealthy taxpayers, by comparison, involve hand-to-hand combat with the best lawyers the wealthy can buy.

It may be every politician's favorite fantasy—weaponizing the IRS. Last week it was reported that two high-ranking former FBI officials who had been fired ...

Therefore it makes sense that the IRS would adjust the algorithm that selects returns for an NRP audit on groups of returns that include a Schedule C and/or a Schedule E. Even if it were possible to target an individual for an IRS audit, it begs the question of how. Kerr notes that Comey’s return was probably already selected for the NRP audit prior to Rettig being installed as IRS commissioner in October of 2018. If the algorithm was looking for taxpayers above a certain income level, with above a certain amount of Schedule C or Schedule E income, and within a given geographical region, it would still be odd that both of these men were selected, but statistically it wouldn’t be quite as unlikely. In other words, after they were no longer receiving a W2. That may not necessarily be because the former president was angry at them and asked the IRS Commissioner to do him a solid. Typically the tax gap results from individuals who have income from sources other than employers issuing W2s. Individuals whose income is also reported to the IRS by a third party are much less likely to avoid reporting taxable income than those whose income isn’t (or isn’t entirely) reported on forms provided by third parties. The tax gap is the difference between how much tax is owed for a given year and how much the IRS collects. Helvering (who was Commissioner of Internal Revenue at the time) the courts have made clear that deductions are a matter of “legislative grace.” Further, the IRS is within its statutory power to require taxpayers to substantiate (or prove) that they are entitled to a deduction if the taxpayer’s return is examined (audited). The IRS is also allowed to review the taxpayer’s bank statements, etc. In contrast to “prove it” audits, where suspicious (or deviant) items on a tax return result in a high DIF score, taxpayers are selected for NRP audits at random using an algorithm. The DIF score is simply a tool to help the IRS decide which returns to consider for audit. The optics of the situation were so bad that IRS Commissioner Charles Rettig almost immediately referred the matter to the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration (TIGTA) for investigation. The IRS uses a tool called a DIF score to select income tax returns for these types of audits.

James Comey and Andrew McCabe, who both headed the FBI and both clashed with then-President Donald Trump, found themselves miraculously selected for ...

But those against Comey and McCabe can hardly be explained any other way than pure harassment by someone fulfilling the wishes of a vindictive president. Both Trump’s and Rettig’s offices disavowed knowledge of the audits. Comey, a Republican, had refused to pledge loyalty to Trump early in his presidency and criticized Trump once he left the job in 2017, drawing a series of harsh attacks from Trump on Twitter. McCabe took over as acting director, also rejecting loyalty demands by Trump. He was fired in 2018 amid an investigation into a news media leak damaging to Trump. McCabe’s dismissal was timed to occur hours before he qualified for his pension, leaving him nothing. Neither Comey nor McCabe knew the other was also being audited until informed by The New York Times. Letters informing both of their audits contain identical introductory wording attesting to the audits being “random.” The IRS is headed by Charles P. Rettig, appointed by Trump in 2018. It is illegal for the IRS to selectively target audits for political purposes. James Comey and Andrew McCabe, who both headed the FBI and both clashed with then-President Donald Trump, found themselves miraculously selected for “random” deep-dive audits by the Internal Revenue Service in 2019 and 2021.

The House Ways and Means Committee plans to meet with IRS Commissioner Chuck Rettig on Thursday, following revelations that two former FBI leaders have been ...

Audits are nothing new. Taxpayers may find themselves in the unfortunate situation of opening their mailboxes to an IRS examination letter.

Taxpayers who receive a Letter 6316 should consider contacting a tax advisor to determine the best course of action in responding to the IRS. The Letter 6316 may arrive in a taxpayer’s mailbox based on random selection by the IRS. Taxpayers need to know that they have rights and options to address these types of IRS letters. It will also be used to guide improvements to how the tax laws are enforced, and to programs designed to help taxpayers understand and comply with the tax laws. According to the IRS, a “CDP hearing is an opportunity to discuss alternatives to enforced collection and permits you to dispute the amount you owe if you have not had a prior opportunity to do so.” [5] Our mission, however, includes examining enough tax returns to ensure that the federal tax system is administered fairly and that any errors on the examined returns will be corrected. According to the IRS, the IRS needs reliable compliance estimates to determine which key areas of noncompliance to address and which treatments to apply to maximize the use of its limited resources. If any tax is due, we will ask you to pay it plus any penalties and interest due as required by law. We recognize that taxpayers who consistently meet all of their tax obligations bear their fair share of the overall tax burden. The IRS issues these particular letters as part of its National Research Program, and the IRS is certainly issuing them—I have spoken with multiple taxpayers who have received such letters in the last few months alone. Our firm has previously described other IRS notices/letters: You Received an IRS CP518 Notice, Now What?; You Received an IRS CP504 Notice, Now What?; You Received an IRS CP15 Notice (re: Form 3520 Penalty), What Now?; You Received an IRS LT11 Notice (or Letter 1058), Now What?; and You Received an IRS Notice CP2000, Now What?. This article discusses the Letter 6316 and how a taxpayer should respond. The IRS Letter 6316 (“Letter 6316”) is one such letter. Taxpayers may find themselves in the unfortunate situation of opening their mailboxes to an IRS examination letter.

U.S. tax commissioner Charles Rettig will face questions from legislators over how two former FBI officials vilified by former President Donald Trump were ...

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Donald Trump fired FBI director James Comey and Andrew McCabe and then both were picked for rare IRS audits under IRS Commissioner Charles Rettig.

McCabe served as acting FBI director when Comey was fired, and in that role continued to oversee the Trump – Russia campaign investigation. But the odds that both Comey and McCabe would be subject to the IRS’ scrutiny at “random” as the IRS claims leave me deeply, deeply suspicious. The reason given was that he lacked candor while being investigated by the Department of Justice for allegedly inappropriate communication to a newspaper. Before dismissing this as pure coincidence, let’s consider the following facts: Comey was fired by Trump in 2017 after Comey refused to publicly refute the existence of an FBI investigation into Trump – Russia collusion in the 2016 presidential campaign. McCabe was advised in 2021 that his 2019 returns would be scrutinized under the same program. And before Trump’s term was over, both were subjected to a process that tax lawyers refer to “only partly jokingly, as ‘an autopsy without the benefit of death,’” according to The New York Times. It’s been said that the only things certain in this world are death and taxes.

The Internal Revenue Service hired roughly 12000 employees between late-March 2020 and mid-July 2021, and just under 2000 were listed in January as still ...

Aretha Franklin's long-standing $7.8 million debt to the Internal Revenue Service has been paid in full, her estate says in a new court filing.

The IRS deal earmarked 45% of incoming Aretha Franklin revenue to pay down the standing tax balance. The remaining tax liability was paid off June 17 with delivery of a cashier’s check to the IRS, according to the new court petition filed by attorney Reginald Turner, personal representative for the estate. From that point, income tax obligations would be on each individual.

Syndicated conservation easements were high on the IRS's annual “Dirty Dozen” list of tax scams in 2019. As a result, the IRS has been cracking down on what ...

Many of these lawsuits, while technically premature as the investors haven’t owed the IRS additional taxes or penalties yet, are resulting in claims against the broker dealers offering investment in the programs and, in some cases, the lawyers, accountants, promoters, and other professionals involved in the creation and handling of the syndicated easements. With the steadily increased IRS crackdown, some investors look to blame those involved in the creation and promotion of syndicated easements, filing suits or making claims against those involved in the process. Membership or interest in the LLC is offered through brokers to investors, who then buy into the LLC with the expectation of taking a significant tax deduction once a conservation easement on the land is donated to a qualifying organization, all for a total of much greater than the original purchase. Then, a highly inflated appraisal is obtained for the “highest and best use,” often the post-development value, and an easement granted in favor of an apparent qualifying conservation entity, with the new partial “owners” taking their share of deductions based on the new appraised value. However, exploiting this tax deduction quickly took off, according to the IRS. So-called syndicated conservation easements were high on the IRS’s annual “Dirty Dozen” list of tax scams in 2019—along with other bad guys such as falsely padding deductions on returns and offshore tax avoidance. The playbook looks something like this: Acquire a piece of undeveloped property in a rural area and then transfer the property to an entity, like an LLC or limited liability company.

Houston tax lawyer Carlos Kepke had been tutoring rich Americans like Robert F. Smith for decades on how to move assets offshore when an undercover agent ...

As the wired agent recorded the conversation, Kepke bragged about placing assets in offshore trusts, notably in the Central American nation of Belize. Clients move money and claim to yield control, in keeping with federal law. But they decide how it’s used, not the foreign trustees. Houston tax lawyer Carlos Kepke had been tutoring rich Americans like Robert F. Smith for decades on how to move assets offshore when an undercover agent posing as a bar owner turned up in 2018.

NCCPAP's June 2022 Tax Update reflects progress on a number of fronts at the Internal Revenue Service.

Syndicated conservation easements were high on the IRS's annual “Dirty Dozen” list of tax scams in 2019. As a result, the IRS has been cracking down on what ...

Many of these lawsuits, while technically premature as the investors haven’t owed the IRS additional taxes or penalties yet, are resulting in claims against the broker dealers offering investment in the programs and, in some cases, the lawyers, accountants, promoters, and other professionals involved in the creation and handling of the syndicated easements. With the steadily increased IRS crackdown, some investors look to blame those involved in the creation and promotion of syndicated easements, filing suits or making claims against those involved in the process. Membership or interest in the LLC is offered through brokers to investors, who then buy into the LLC with the expectation of taking a significant tax deduction once a conservation easement on the land is donated to a qualifying organization, all for a total of much greater than the original purchase. Then, a highly inflated appraisal is obtained for the “highest and best use,” often the post-development value, and an easement granted in favor of an apparent qualifying conservation entity, with the new partial “owners” taking their share of deductions based on the new appraised value. However, exploiting this tax deduction quickly took off, according to the IRS. So-called syndicated conservation easements were high on the IRS’s annual “Dirty Dozen” list of tax scams in 2019—along with other bad guys such as falsely padding deductions on returns and offshore tax avoidance. The playbook looks something like this: Acquire a piece of undeveloped property in a rural area and then transfer the property to an entity, like an LLC or limited liability company.