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By: Heather L. Marello, Esq. In a recent press release, IRS is again urging participants in abusive microcaptive insurance arrangements to cease participation in such transactions. This message comes after the Service’s recent win in the U.S. Tax Court in Caylor Land & Dev. v. Commissioner, T.C. Memo 2021-30 (2021). This win marks the fourth major victory in this area,
By: Heather L. Marello, Esq. I.R.C. § 6012(a)(2) imposes an income tax return filing requirement on “every corporation subject to taxation under subtitle A.” The Treasury Regulations clarify that a foreign corporation is not exempt from U.S. taxation if it is engaged in a U.S. trade or business, even if it has no effectively connected U.S. income or its income
By: Heather L. Marello and Kevin M. Murphy During a recent web conference, IRS Large Business and International Division Commissioner Douglas O’Donnell warned that IRS is gearing up to initiate hundreds of non-filer audits against high income individuals and those with related flow-through entities. The original announcement of this initiative came in July, 2019, when LB&I added high income non-filers
By: Derek B. Wheeler, Esq. and Heather L. Marello, Esq. As part of the Restructuring and Reform Act of 1998 (“RRA 98”), Congress enacted IRC §6751(b)(1), which requires written supervisory approval for certain penalties proposed by the IRS. Much of RRA 98 focused on legislative controls to prevent abusive practices by IRS personnel which had come to light in the
By: Heather Marello, Esq. In 2013, New York added Section 171-v to the tax law, which provides that the State may suspend a taxpayer’s driver’s license if his or her tax, penalty and interest exceeds $10,000 and the taxpayer is not in an installment payment arrangement or have an accepted Offer in Compromise by the Tax Department. When the law
By: Heather L. Marello Married taxpayers often file their annual income tax returns electing “married filing joint” status. While often beneficial from a tax perspective, spouses rarely understand that, by electing this status, each spouse agrees to be liable for the entire amount due for that year – whether it is the liability reported as due on the return or
By: Heather L. Marello, Esq. Types of Audits Pursuant to the IRS Data Book, during calendar year 2016, the IRS audited almost 1.1 million tax returns, or 0.5% of all returns filed. A representative never can (or should) predict to a client whether his or her return will be selected for audit, as a number of factors can cause the
We are proud to announce the promotion of attorney Heather L. Marello from Associate to Senior Associate. Mrs. Marello focuses her practice on tax controversy and international tax compliance, and also assists in teaching Tax Practice and Procedure at UB Law School, editing chapters for Reuters publication, and was recently published in the Buffalo Law Journal. Mrs. Marello is admitted
By: Heather L. Marello, Esq. The Bank Secrecy Act of 1970, Pub. L. 91-507, 84 Stat 114 (Oct. 26, 1970), addressed the government’s desire to monitor the use of foreign bank accounts for illegal activities by authorizing the Secretary of the Treasury to require U.S. citizens, residents, and others to “keep records, file reports, or keep records and file reports,
By: Heather L. Marello, Esq. In the wake of recent hurricanes that devastated Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands, IRS released Notice 2017-56, Physical Presence of Certain Individuals in the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico or the United States Virgin Islands Under Section 937(a) Following Hurricane Irma or Hurricane Maria, to provide relief under the strict bona fide residency rules