Russell J. Haynes, Attorney at Law Resolving Tax Liens It is the day before closing on the purchase of your dream home. The financing is arranged, the papers are being prepared, the money has been wired to escrow. The phone rings. It is your agent. The title search reveals a tax lien on the house. […]
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Second Employee Retention Credit Voluntary Disclosure Program
Announcement 2024-30 Section 1. Purpose and Scope The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) announces a second ERC Voluntary Disclosure Program for employers (participants) to resolve erroneous claims for credit or refund involving the Employee Retention Credit (ERC). The ERC is a refundable tax credit intended for businesses and tax-exempt organizations that continued paying employees during the […]
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IRS Suspends Automated Substitute for Return Activity
Carl Smith, a tax attorney and frequent contributor to the excellent tax procedure and controversy blog, Procedurally Taxing (“PT”), reported to PT on September 26 from a New York County Lawyers Association seminar entitled “Nontraditional Tax Advocacy,” where Matthew Weir, the Assistant Inspector General of the office of the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration […]
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Removal of Liens on Credit Reports
“Can you get this tax lien removed from my credit report?” For many years, this has been one of the more common questions we hear from clients and potential clients at Haynes Tax Law. Some are people that have already resolved their tax problems and had the Notice of Federal Tax Lien released, but the […]
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The IRS Has a Headache Named “Bitcoin”
In September, the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration released a report outlining additional actions needed to ensure taxpayer compliance in the age of bitcoin and other virtual currency. Our tax system relies heavily on taxpayers sel-reporting their taxable transactions and is backstopped by third-party reporting where “information returns” like Forms 1099, W-2, 1098, etc. […]
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Improved IRS “Get Transcript Online” System Goes Active
After being disabled more than a year ago due to security issues that led to the theft of confidential taxpayer information, resulting in countless identity theft cases, the IRS has finally announced the relaunch of the online transcript retrieval system called “IRS Get Transcript Online.” The IRS has beefed up the electronic authentication process used […]
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Commingling Business Expenses
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 […]
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IRS Early Interaction Initiative
The IRS has launched its “Early Interaction Initiative,” to quickly identify and intervene with employers that miss a scheduled federal tax deposit. The point of the program is to flag the employer immediately when a deposit is missed, rather than continue to work such cases as the IRS has done for many years — by […]
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Owe Federal Taxes, Lose Your Passport
Congress has passed, and President Obama has signed, the Fixing America’s Surface Transportation Act (FAST Act) . Title 32 of the bill includes several tax provisions , including Section 32101, which permits the IRS to seek the denial or revocation of a citizen’s passport when that person owes a “seriously delinquent tax debt.” The FAST […]
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IRS Criminal Investigation Division Releases 2015 Annual Report
The IRS Criminal Investigation Division (“CID”) has released its 2015 annual report, which includes information on the number of investigations, prosecutions, targets incarcerated, the impact of budget changes, and areas of focus in the coming year. You can read the entire report here . The report is 47 pages and contains a great deal of […]