Many businesses that operate outside of the U.S. want to do business in the U.S. and they want to limit their exposure to U.S. income taxes. To do this, many in-bound investments are structured as U.S. partnerships with the parntership being formed in the U.S. to carry on the business activities in the U.S. This…
Category: Tax
Tax
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Double Trouble: Taxability of Repeated Injury Lawsuits
As human beings, we strive to understand the laws of nature and our place in the world. Despite the advancements in technology, research, and science, there still remains much that is unknown. However, we do observe patterns and repetitions in both the natural world and human behavior. With each passing experience and as we age,…
Tax Law is Not Determined by Common Industry Term
Just because businesses in a particular industry commonly use a term to describe a particular transaction or event, the industry term does not necessarily have any bearing on the Federal income tax consequences of the transaction or event. The court addresses this in Greenteam Materials Recovery Facility PN v. Commissioner, T.C. Memo. 2017-122, in the…
Issue for the New Partnership Audit Procedures Raised in TEFRA Case
The Tax Equity and Fiscal Responsibility Act of 1982 (“TEFRA”) procedures were intended to make it easier for the IRS to audit partnership tax returns. TEFRA failed to deliver. The rules are nuanced and hard to apply. The new partnership audit procedures are intended to remedy this. With the new partnership IRS audit procedures coming…
U.S. Foreign Tax Credit Not Impacted by Repayment of Foreign Tax Refund
The tax assessment and collection process in most foreign countries is markedly different than the process in the U.S. These differences can present a number of challenges for U.S. citizens who reside in foreign countries. In Sotiropoulos v. Commissioner, T.C. Memo. 2017-75, the court considered one of these challenges, namely, how does one determine whether…
Court Considers Economic Substance in S Corp Transactions
The IRS challenges some tax positions by asserting that the transactions lack economic substance. This can allow the government to unwind or ignore transactions that comply with our tax laws if there is no legitimate business purpose for the transactions other than tax savings. There is a growing body of court cases that helps define…
IRS Says Personal Expenses Paid by S Corp. Not Loan Repayments
If a Subchapter S corporation pays its shareholders personal expenses, can the payments be for the repayment of loans not subject to employment instead of wages subject to employment taxes? This is a common issue that has to be addressed when preparing S corporation tax returns. The IRS addressed this in AOD 2017-04 disagreeing with…
Court Says Employer Entitled to Worker’s IRS Records
When the IRS determines that independent contractors are taxed as employees, it is up to the employer to show that the IRS determination is incorrect. One way to do this is to show that the workers paid tax even though the employer did not withhold the tax. In Mescalero Apache Tribe v. Commissioner, 148 T.C.…
Court Decides Transfer Pricing Buy-in Payment Case
The transfer pricing disputes often involve transfers of property offshore. Taxpayers make these transfers so that the post-transfer profits earned from the offshored property are not subject to tax in the U.S. or, in many cases, not subject to tax in the foreign countries either. The U.S. Tax Court recently decided Amazon Inc. v. Commissioner,…
S Corporation Owner Taxed on Earnings Not Distributed
Taxpayers who own an interest in an S corporation are often not familiar with the tax rules for S corporations. They are often surprised to learn that they have to pay taxes on the business profits even if they do not receive distributions from the business. The court recently addressed this fundamental concept in Dalton…