TaxEsqBlog -by Ronald J. Cappuccio, J.D., LL.M.(Tax)

Columbus - taxes, the government shutdown and ObamaCare Today is Columbus Day. Growing up it was an important holiday but now Columbus is being derided for all of his various faults. My son, who is in 8th grade and has an extremely inspiring history teacher, came home and told me that "Mrs. M does not think we should celebrate Columbus Day." He went on to tell me that Leif Erickson actually discovered America and that Columbus spread disease and tortured Native Americans. What he didn't say was that Columbus also demanded tribute from the Indians, stole their gold, enslaved some of the Indians and brought them back to Spain as objects of curiosity. He also didn't discuss the brutality and all of the other negative things that can be brought up about Columbus. Thank heavens! Those who pooh-pooh Columbus bring up the fact that most educated Europeans in the late 15th century knew that the world was a sphere and not flat. But the fact was, like the great inventors...

The IRS has finally announced that it will stop the automatic issuing of federal tax liens, levies and executions during the government shut down.  Unfortunately, many automatic levies have been issued by the IRS and there is no one in the IRS to talk to or negotiate with to set up installment agreements or take other actions to remove the levy.  This results in great hardship for taxpayers. The IRS has been issuing notices, some dated October 7, 2013, even though the office was to be shut down by October 1, 2013.  It is hard for me to believe that this was not designed to have maximum impact upon taxpayers.  In fact all the IRS services that normally assist taxpayers, whether its at a service center, or on the telephone, as well as the normal collection and auditing function, have been terminated during the shutdown.  This intentional design clearly is to put a maximum negative impact upon taxpayers. Because of the complaints, the IRS is now issued a revise...

The IRS is at it again going after famous people to make big publicity splashes about their criminal prosecutions.  This time, it involves 69-year-old H. Ty Warner, the inventor of Beanie Babies the craze of the 90s, for having Swiss bank accounts.  The Department of Justice and IRS love to attack popular and well-known people in order to demonstrate that the government uses force against people who are "tax evaders". I am not arguing that Mr. Warner did not violate US tax law, but the Government once again is using the prosecution of a famous person such as Mr. Warner (previously Lauryn Hill, Wesley Snipes, Leona Helsley, etc) to show that it will use the full force of the government to collect taxes. The really sad part of this is that if Mr. Warner were a citizen of almost any other country, earning income in a foreign country would not be considered taxable.  The US is one of only 2 countries that taxes of foreign earnings of its citizens.  None of the news a...

The IRS is scaling back operations during the Government Shutdown These are the things to remember: 1. FILE all tax returns on time. 2. PAY all tax deposits and balances on time. For example, the October 15 extension date for filing Individual returns still applies. 3. The IRS computers will be generating notices, levies, and other tax actions and the websites should be working. 4. AUDITS will be delayed until after the shutdown. 5. Some COLLECTION activities will be delayed. 6. All TIME DEADLINES remain in effect. If you have a letter stating you must respond in 30 days, 90 days, etc, and you do not, you will lose your appeal rights when the IRS does reopen. Here is a good excerpt for RIA Checkpoint: Government shutdown forces IRS to scale back operations IRS has announced on its website (irs.gov/uac/Newsroom/IRS-Operations-During-The-Lapse-In-Appropriations) that its operations have been scaled back due to the government shutdown. However, it emphasized that taxpay...