IRS has reopened the Voluntary Disclosure Program to help businesses who filed false Employee Retention Credit claims.

IRS Streamlined Filing Program for Expat non-filers seeking amnesty on income tax filings and FBAR.

IRS employees are going back to their offices and backlogged Tax Court cases are being assigned to Appeals.

The recently enacted tax reform bill has made significant changes to the taxation of business.  This post summarizes some of the more substantial changes.

Employer-owned life insurance policies issued after August 17, 2016 are subject to taxation by the IRS unless they qualify for an exception.

IRS Using Software to Find Bitcoin Users

Sellers who use Ebay and Paypal or other payment processors may receive Form 1099-Ks.

The Internal Revenue Service has released its annual list of tax scams.  A summary of the list, called the "Dirty Dozen" is provided in this article.

The IRS along with the DOJ has been aggressively pursuing offshore account holders to disclose their overseas bank accounts before it's too late.  There are significant penalties for holding accounts in certain foreign banks.  However, in an effort to encourage account holders to disclose their accounts, the IRS started the Offshore Voluntary Disclosure Program (OVDP)  and the streamlined procedures enable taxpayer to meet their tax obligations while limiting the potential penalties for continued non-compliance.

A recent decision by the Tax Court should serve as a warning to people that own multiple businesses but don't always "respect the corporate formalities" associated with each business entity. If you own more than one business and sometimes have Company A pay the expenses of Company B, or perhaps task an employee of Company A to do things for Company B, the IRS may deny your deductions.

Private collection agencies are now working for the IRS. In fact, for some hard to collect bills, the law now requires—rather than just permits—the IRS to use private collectors. Many people think that having the IRS farm out collection work to private contractors is a bad idea.  Here are 10 things you should know:

It's tax filing season.  And again this year, we had some tax laws extended by Congress through 2016 or 2019, but some were actually made permanent.  I'm going to discuss those tax provisions that have been extended or made permanent for individual taxpayers. 

Criminal Investigations can be initiated from information obtained from within the IRS when a revenue agent (auditor) or revenue officer (collection) detects possible fraud.  Information is also routinely received from the public as well as from ongoing investigations underway by other law enforcement agencies or by United States Attorneys offices across the country.

If you withdraw money from your individual retirement account before age 59 1/2, you will generally have to pay a 10 percent early withdrawal penalty in addition to income tax on the amount withdrawn. This means a $5,000 withdrawal taken by a mid-career worker in the 25 percent tax bracket would result in $1,750 in taxes and penalties. But there are a variety of ways to avoid the IRA early withdrawal penalty if you meet specific criteria:

The idea that there’s no such thing as a free lunch could eventually ring true for employees who get complimentary meals at work, as the Internal Revenue Service and Department of the Treasury have taken a step closer to potentially taxing such meals. Last year, the IRS suggested in its Priority Guidance Plan that it was exploring modifying sections of the Tax Code concerning employer-provided meals that it believed were problematic.

Interesting Estate Tax Facts.  The federal estate tax is a tax on property (cash, real estate, stock, or other assets) transferred from deceased persons to their heirs. Only the wealthiest estates pay the tax because it is imposed only on the portion of an estate’s value that exceeds a specified exemption level — $5.43 million per person (effectively $10.86 million per married couple) in 2015.

Affordable Care Act, Taxes, Fines and Employer Mandates

Tax on Inherited IRAs

There is a way to make tax liens disappear from your credit reports completely, and quickly, though. Unfortunately, not all taxpayers who are dealing with this problem know about it.

Alabama has become the 32nd state with an independent tax appeals process.