Taxes

Share to Twitter Share to Linkedin Elodie Lamer and Nana Ama Sarfo of Tax Notes discuss the tax implications of golden visas and passports, which allow affluent foreigners to receive residency or citizenship in exchange for a minimum level of investment. This transcript has been edited for length and clarity. David D. Stewart: Welcome to the podcast. I'm David Stewart, editor in chief of Tax Notes Today International . This week: good as gold. The idea of immigration often conjures up black and white images of huddled masses on ships in New York Harbor. People seeking new opportunities to make their fortune. But what happens for people who've already made their fortune and don't have time to wait in line for the normal process? And what about the growing class of remote workers who don't need to be physically anywhere? This week, we're talking about golden passports with Tax Notes reporter Elodie Lamer and Tax Notes … [Read more...] about First-Class Tax Opportunities: Golden Visas And Passports

Share to Twitter Share to Linkedin Crypto markets are notoriously volatile, but even so, the recent activity has been unsettling. Whether you are a buy and hold investor or an active trader with high frequency moves, it is nerve-wracking, and it may not be over yet. For some, it can be downright devastating, particularly if you had put all your nest eggs in Terra UST UST or Luna LUNA . But even those may bounce back, as luna has shocked some by staging a surprise rally . In the meantime, the turmoil may make plenty of crypto investors, as well as people in various crypto and crypto-related businesses less enthusiastic than they were when prices seemed ever to be climbing. But can some tax losses help? As your dollars shake out in the digital world, is there any lemonade you can make by claiming your losses on your taxes to share the pain with the IRS? First, ask what happened from a tax viewpoint. If you‘ve been trading and triggering big taxable … [Read more...] about Do Crypto Losses Trigger Tax Losses With IRS?

Share to Twitter Share to Linkedin In 2014, the IRS said crypto was property. Five years went by, and the next thing the IRS said was that hard forks were taxable. How about swaps of crypto for crypto guidance? Not so much. There is no official guidance, although we all know that by statute, 1031 now applies only to real property. How about for 2017 and prior years? It just isn’t clear if you could claim 1031 exchanges on your 2017 taxes . That is why the world sat up when someone from the IRS said–at a conference–that 1031 didn’t apply even to those old years. Is that official guidance? Not hardly. An IRS person said the IRS view was “no” on 1031 for crypto. Suzanne Sinno, an attorney in the IRS Office of the Associate Chief Counsel, made the remark at an American Institute of CPAs conference November 13, 2019. She worked on the recent cryptocurrency guidance the IRS issued , but this was not an official announcement, nor was it “authority” … [Read more...] about IRS Kills Tax Free Crypto Exchanges? Not Hardly

Share to Twitter Share to Linkedin You might think the biggest tax debate about bitcoin and other crypto is whether you should report it, or whether the IRS will catch people who don’t. Actually, there’s no longer much debate about these topics. Everyone seems to know that you should report, and that the IRS is after those who do not. The IRS is tracking with software, and the IRS Summons of Coinbase is already bearing fruit with account files for the IRS. In fact, the biggest crypto tax debate still seems to be about 1031 , the tax code provision that allows some like-kind exchanges. Everyone knows that 1031 currently only applies to exchanges of real estate. The Trump tax law passed right around Christmas 2017 means that for 2018, you can forget arguing that swaps of one crypto for another are tax free. But there is debate about the past. Shutterstock If you are about to file your tax return, should you claim 1031 treatment for 2017 … [Read more...] about Claiming Bitcoin 1031 Exchanges On Your 2017 Taxes

The government collected 41.1 trillion won in taxes in March, compared with 30.7 trillion won the previous year, according to the Ministry of Economy and Finance. Korea has continued to log a surplus of tax revenue, as the economy has been on a recovery track. The collection of corporate taxes rose 9.6 trillion won on-year to 27 trillion won. That of value-added taxes gained 900 billion won to 2.3 trillion won on the back of an increase in consumption and imports. In the first quarter, the tax revenue came to 111.1 trillion won, up 22.6 trillion won a year earlier. The government's total revenue, including tax collection, increased 18.2 trillion won on-year to 170.4 trillion won in the first three months of the year. Its gross expenditures rose 21.3 trillion won to 203.5 trillion won. The managed fiscal balance, a key gauge of fiscal health, posted a deficit of 45.5 trillion won in the first quarter, smaller than a shortfall of 48.6 trillion won a year earlier. The central … [Read more...] about Tax collections up 10.4 trillion won in first quarter on year

Share to Twitter Share to Linkedin Tax audits are down. By a lot. Internal Revenue Service audit rates of individual taxpayers’ returns have dropped for all income levels from tax years 2010 to 2019, according to a new Government Accountability Office report. On average, individual tax returns were audited over three times more often for tax year 2010 (0.9 percent) than for tax year 2019 (0.25 percent). Audit rates for taxpayers with incomes between $200,000 and $500,000 saw the biggest drop (a 92% drop), from 2.3% in 2010 to 0.2% in 2019. For the highest income taxpayers, those with income of $10 million or more, the audit rate dropped from 21.2% in 2019 to just 3.9% in 2019 (an 81% drop). Here’s a look at how much audit rates are declining: Table 3 in the report, Trends of IRS Audit Rates and Results for Individual Taxpayers by Income , has more detailed numbers. The drop in audits is good news for tax cheats and bad news for the rest of … [Read more...] about IRS Tax Return Audit Rates Plummet

Share to Twitter Share to Linkedin Tax returns are annual drudgery, but they matter. They matter for individuals, businesses and investment entities. Everybody must file one, or more than one, depending on how many entities you have. You may have state taxes to file too. You might think your filing date is obvious, and hopefully you file before the deadline. The one everyone knows is April 15. Of course, that date moves slightly, such as for 2021 returns, when the due date was April 18, 2022. Business entities face other due dates. So what’s the big deal about when you file? Proof, for one thing. It can become important to prove when you filed because of the statute of limitations. Wouldn’t it be nice to tell the IRS, “Sorry, you are too late to audit me?” The overarching federal tax statute of limitations runs three years after you file your tax return. But there are many exceptions that give the IRS six years or longer. But starting with the normal three … [Read more...] about Court Rules IRS Is Too Late To Audit, Win For Taxpayers

Share to Twitter Share to Linkedin There have been two important opinions in the Low Income Housing Tax Credit Year 15 struggle so far this month. Both favor not-for-profit (NFP) sponsors. They each deserve their own post, so today we will start with JER Hudson GP XXI LLC which came down May 2 from Vice Chancellor Morgan T. Zurn of the Delaware Court of Chancery. First a little bit of background, which you can skip if you are familiar with the issue. The Year 15 Problem The major source of funding for affordable housing in this country is the LIHTC - Section 42 of the Internal Revenue Code. States are apportioned credits based on population. A specified agency in each state then parcels out the credits to projects. NFP sponsors have an edge in the allocation process. Typically the credit will be allocated to an investor limited partner, often a bank that is getting Community Reinvestment Act good dooby points in addition to the return from the credit. … [Read more...] about Delaware Chancery Refuses To Apply Ferengi Principles To Low Income Housing Deals

Share to Twitter Share to Linkedin Today's Social Security column addresses questions about whether congress is working on a fix for people who turned 60 in 2020, when an application for divorced spousal benefits can be submitted and whether filing early affects the Government Pension Offset. Larry Kotlikoff is a Professor of Economics at Boston University and the founder and president of Economic Security Planning, Inc. See more Ask Larry answers here . Have Social Security questions of your own you’d like answered? Ask Larry about Social Security here . Will Social Security Fix The Problem In Calculating Benefit Rates For Those Born In 1960? Hi Larry, Are there any updates on the problem in calculating Social Security payments for people who turned 60 in 2020 caused by the pandemic? Thanks, Tomás Hi Tomás, Nothing final has been passed by congress to the best of my knowledge. To clarify, Social Security retirement … [Read more...] about Ask Larry: Will Social Security Fix The Problem In Calculating Benefit Rates For Those Born In 1960?

Share to Twitter Share to Linkedin The Government Accountability Office (GAO) was asked to report on trends in IRS audit rates, audit results, and resources used for audits across individual taxpayer income levels. Their report, issued this week, analyzed audit rates and results and IRS resources used by taxpayer income for the most recent years data was available. According to the report, “In recent years, IRS has examined, or audited, a decreasing proportion of individual tax returns. This trend has raised concerns about the potential for declining taxpayer compliance, as well as whether IRS is equitably selecting taxpayers for audit, as audit rates for higher-income taxpayers have decreased more than audit rates for lower-income taxpayers.” On May 18, 2022 IRS Chief Taxpayer Experience Officer, Ken Corbin, and the GAO Director of Strategic Issues, James McTigue, appeared before the House Ways and Means Oversight Subcommittee (Bill Pascrell, D-NJ, chair) … [Read more...] about GAO Report Highlights Fairness Issues In IRS Audit Rates