A taxpayer with a terminal illness owes the IRS back taxes. Her medical bills are eating whatever money she has left. Her tax attorney files an offer to settle the tax debt for a nominal amount, and the IRS agent working the file agrees to recommend it. Then the process drags on for months. That…
Category: Tax Procedure
Tax Procedure
From IRS audits and appeals to tax litigation and penalties, our tax attorneys can help you navigate the tax procedure landscape with confidence. Give us a call to see how we can help, (713) 909-4906.
Replacement Receipts to Prove a Hurricane Casualty Loss?
For those who have suffered damage in a natural disaster, this type of article has real meaning. The consequences of the event are one thing. The aftermath and clean up another. The incurance fights another. And then in the end, the fight with the IRS. Since we are in Houston, we experienced and saw a…
Does a Missing Penalty Computation Void an IRS Penalty?
You open your mail and an IRS notice shows up with a penalty on it. There is a dollar figure. There is a name for the penalty. What is often missing is any math showing how the IRS arrived at the penalty number. Most taxpayers assume the IRS has to show its work. And there…
Did the IRS Really Mail That Notice by Certified Mail?
You file a Form 8857 asking the IRS for innocent spouse relief. Then you wait. Months go by. Nothing shows up in your mailbox. So you eventually file a petition with the U.S. Tax Court to get someone to look at your case. Then the IRS tells you that you are too late. It says…
Signing an IRS Agreement With Missing Forms
IRS audits do happen. When they do, it seems like they drag on. But they do end. At the end of an audit, IRS auditors will almost always hand over a stack of paper. Sign here, initial there, and the case closes. The forms are dense. They almost always reference other forms. Sometimes the other…
The IRS Has to Mail Levy Notices to the Right Address
Taxpayers move. They move their homes, they move their offices, and they file returns from whatever address they happen to be using that year. That is the way it works. The IRS is supposed to keep up. When the IRS wants to levy on a taxpayer’s property, it has to send the warning notice to…
Lying to Business Partners Becomes Tax Fraud
A business owner runs the books himself. He codes some personal expenses as business costs so the other owners will not see how much the company pays for his lifestyle. He is not thinking about the IRS at all. He just does not want his partners asking questions. Years later, the IRS shows up and…
For the COVID Sick Leave Credit, What is a Real Business?
The COVID pandemic impacted just about every business in the U.S. Right or wrong, Congress acted to prevent the financial fallout. This was accomplished in large part by making refundable tax credits available to businesses and business owners. Small business owners spent 2020 and 2021 and the years that follow trying to claim the tax…
A Customer Paid to Expand Your Factory. Is That Income?
Your business has a big customer. The customer wants more product than your business can make. So the customer offers to pay for a building expansion on your property to allow you to make their product. Your business does not take a dime of that building money. The cash goes straight to the contractor from…
Owe the IRS but Can’t Tap Home Equity to Pay?
A taxpayer falls behind on his taxes. Life happens. A spouse gets sick, a house goes into foreclosure, and the bills pile up. When the IRS sends a notice threatening to seize assets, the taxpayer says what feels obvious. I cannot pay this. That sounds like it should be the end of the matter. If…