IRS Beating a Dead Horse trying to regulate Tax Preparers

Talk about beating a dead horse!  Yes, that is the IRS position before the courts as to why it can regulate and control tax return preparers.  The district court properly struck down the IRS attempt to control tax preparers as being outside its authority under law.  Congress has never authorized the IRS to control tax return preparers, and frankly it is a truly bad idea.  Why should the IRS be permitted to regulate and control tax return preparers that are supposed to represent taxpayers who are truly adversarial to the IRS?

In an attempt to show that they have authority to regulate tax return preparers, the IRS argued before the appellate courts yesterday that a law from the 1880s concerning the regulation of representatives of the people who lost their horses horses when they were killed by the government gives every government agency the right to regulate and control any paid person that has anything to do with the agency.  That would include tax return preparers.  The Obama administration is presenting this ludicrous argument in a continued attempt to expand government and the authority of the Executive branch of government.

Our Constitution establishes that Congress makes the laws and the Executive administers the laws.  Unfortunately the Executive branch keeps usurping Congress's power, even if it means beating a dead horse.  It would be very simple for Congress to amend the Internal Revenue Code to authorize the IRS to regulate paid tax return preparers.  It could be as simple as one sentence.  Congress has not done this and in my opinion should not do this, nevertheless the IRS is spending millions of dollars of taxpayers money to fight for this nonstatutory expansion of its authority.

Click here for further information.

Popular posts from this blog

Image
Selling your business? Defer — and possibly reduce — tax with an installment sale You’ve spent years building your company and now are ready to move on to something else, whether launching a new business, taking advantage of another career opportunity or retiring. Whatever your plans, you want to get the return from your business that you’ve earned from all of the time and money you’ve put into it. That means not only getting a good price, but also minimizing the tax hit on the proceeds. One option that can help you defer tax and perhaps even reduce it is an installment sale. Tax benefits With an installment sale, you don’t receive a lump sum payment when the deal closes. Instead, you receive installment payments over a period of time, spreading the gain over a number of years. This generally defers tax, because you pay most of the tax liability as you receive the payments. Usually tax deferral is beneficial, but it could be especially beneficial if it would allow you to stay
Read more

Business Expenses unde Tax Reform

Image
Now’s the time to review your business expenses As we approach the end of the year, it’s a good idea to review your business’s expenses for deductibility. At the same time, consider whether your business would benefit from accelerating certain expenses into this year. Be sure to evaluate the impact of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA), which reduces or eliminates many deductions. In some cases, it may be necessary or desirable to change your expense and reimbursement policies. What’s deductible, anyway? There’s no master list of deductible business expenses in the Internal Revenue Code (IRC). Although some deductions are expressly authorized or excluded, most are governed by the general rule of IRC Sec. 162, which permits businesses to deduct their “ordinary and necessary” expenses. An ordinary expense is one that is common and accepted in your industry. A necessary expense is one that is helpful and appropriate for your business. (It need not be indispensable.) Even if an
Read more

2018 Year-End Tax Planning

Year-End Tax Planning - 2018 Year-end planning for 2018 takes place against the backdrop of a new tax law — the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act — that make major changes in the tax rules for individuals and businesses. For individuals, there are new, lower income tax rates, a substantially increased standard deduction, severely limited itemized deductions and no personal exemptions, an increased child tax credit, and a watered-down alternative minimum tax (AMT), among many other changes. For businesses, the corporate tax rate is cut to 21%, the corporate AMT is gone, there are new limits on business interest deductions, and significantly liberalized expensing and depreciation rules. And there's a new deduction for non-corporate taxpayers with qualified business income from pass-through entities. We have compiled a checklist of actions based on current tax rules that may help you save tax dollars if you act before year-end. Not all actions will apply in your particular situation, but you
Read more