Posted by taxguru on August 30, 2017
Is the IRS Scandal About to Break Wide Open? – Let’s not hold our breath waiting for our GOP rulers to do anything to punish, or even stop, the DemonRat criminals operating at high places in the government.
The Big 3 Tax Cut Lies That Democrats Keep Telling – Just a few of the many lies promulgated by the enemedia, DemonRats, and RINOs in order to justify stealing huge percentages of money from the producers in this country via the Marxist “progressive” tax rate system.
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Posted by taxguru on August 29, 2017
There are a few silver linings to the still ongoing disaster in the Houston area as related to income taxes.
Filing Delay
As is always the case with huge unexpected disruptive events, IRS has officially extended tax filing and payment deadlines for people and businesses who are in the affected areas. In this recent press release, IRS has extended the tax return filing and tax payment deadlines until January 31, 2018 for those who had tax returns due or extensions expiring in September and October 2017. This includes millions of people who filed extensions for their 2016 1040s.
Deducting Unreimbursed Casualty Losses
Not mentioned in this IRS announcement is the fact that victims of Hurricane Harvey also have a choice about when to deduct their losses from this disaster. Presidentially Declared Disaster Areas (PDDA) have a special tax break that “lesser” disasters don’t.
Normal tax policy is to declare income received and expenses paid on the tax returns for that particular year. If there were a fire or a small neighborhood flood in August 2017, those who were affected would have to wait to deduct their unreimbursed loses on their 2017 tax returns, which they would be filing with IRS in 2018.
In order to allow PDDA affected taxpayers to recoup some of their losses sooner, via tax reductions, they have the option to claim the casualty loss deduction on the normal year’s tax return (2017 for Harvey) or on the previous year’s return (2016 for Harvey). You can see more details on this on the IRS website.
Deciding on which tax return to claim the PDDA loss is, like many tax planning choices, based on when it will save you the most money. As of today (8/29/17), we are only aware of one of our clients who has been personally hit by Hurricane Harvey, with an early estimated loss of around a million dollars. We will most definitely be discussing the feasibility of deducting this loss on his 2016 1040, which also happened to be a year in which he had to report several millions of capital gains.
Having spent several years in California, I do have quite a bit of experience in working with this issue with such disasters as earthquakes, as well as how to properly document and claim the losses on tax returns to avoid any IRS questions. This includes attaching photographs of the home, before the disaster and after, as well as copies of contractor invoices for reconstruction costs. The larger the deduction, the more documentation you need to attach to your tax return. You don’t want to have to suffer through a disaster that’s often much worse than a hurricane, an IRS Audit.
You can download a handy PDF reference on deducting casualty and theft losses here. Courtesy of my favorite tax reference source, TheTaxBook.
Posted in casualty, disaster | Comments Off on Some Hurricane Harvey Tax Breaks
Posted by taxguru on August 19, 2017
I’m not holding my breath expecting Lois Lerner and her band of scofflaws to ever be punished for assisting the bHo Regime in using the IRS to attack and persecute political opponents. However, it’s still great to see that some folks are not yet ready to let the story drop.
‘Lay it on the line’: Judge in tea party case orders IRS to disclose employee names, reasons
Posted in Uncategorized | Comments Off on Will IRS criminals ever be prosecuted?
Posted by taxguru on August 11, 2017
Ever since the amazing election of Donald Trump, there has been debate as to whether or not he and the GOP controlled Congress will be able to enact any substantial reform of our wild and wacky Tax Code in the near future. We in the Tax Practitioner community would love to know the answer to this question so we will know what to advise our clients. The uncertainty surrounding this issue is very frustrating for us all.
Basing predictions of what our rulers in DC will do on their blustery talk is insane and ludicrous. However, if we look at what actual advance preparations are being made by our rulers for such reforms, it doesn’t look promising.
As these others have noted, it’s pretty much impossible to clean up the IRS Swamp when its crooks are allowed to continue running it and nobody is punished for their flagrant crimes. How can we have anything resembling a fair tax system when we can’t trust those in charge of it?
IRS head Koskinen hurting tax reform, Rep. Brady wants him fired
The IRS is STILL toying with conservative nonprofits. When will Trump jump in and drain this swamp?
Posted in Crooks, IRS, TaxReform | Comments Off on A necessary prerequisite for Tax Reform
Posted by taxguru on August 1, 2017
It’s not bed enough that such IRS miscreants as Lois Lerner and John Koskinen have never faced any legal consequences for their blatant illegal activities while working at the IRS, there is this news item that IRS is rehiring employees who had been fired for criminal actions while working for IRS.
IRS Rehired Employees That Falsified Documents, Had Unauthorized Access to Taxpayer Information
We all know that IRS has been suffering from low manpower due to attrition and budget restrictions, but are they this desperate for worker bees that they ignore and excuse prior criminal actions? What message does this send to other IRS employees, the tax practitioner community, as well as the American TaxPayers? It is nothing less than insane.
Update: Rush Limbaugh discussed this issue in his Morning Update on 8/7/17.
Posted in Crooks, IRS | Comments Off on IRS Condones Employees’ Criminal Activities
Tax Guru - Ker$tetter Letter 