ARTICLES

A recent ruling deals with a married couple who became victims of a Ponzi scheme by investing with a fund manager - not directly with the perpetrator of the fraud. The IRS ruled in 2009 that investors who lost money in Bernard Madoff's Ponzi scheme...

Now that you have filed your tax return, and before you put away your tax files for another year, it's a good idea to check your withholding for 2012 - especially if you expect a large refund or owe a lot of tax. Neither getting a big tax refund...

With the tax return deadline rapidly approaching, you still have time to make a 2011 contribution to an IRA. While you might choose to contribute to a Roth IRA because of the future tax savings available, a contribution to a traditional IRA may...

In a new revenue procedure, the IRS has issued the annual tables for the depreciation deductions available to owners of passenger automobiles, trucks and vans first placed in service during calendar year 2012. For passenger automobiles, the...

A recent decision of the Tax Court demonstrates a tax risk sometimes encountered by employees of enterprises that have the potential for becoming financially unstable. This case (Patrick J. Sheedy and Karen J. Sheedy v. Commissioner, T.C. Memo...

Paul DiMundo set up a corporation in 2002, had all of the shares issued to a custodial Roth IRA account and had the corporation elect to be taxed as an S corporation. An S corporation is generally not subject to tax. Instead, the income of the S...

The message of a recent survey seems to be: Don't get caught littering. Forbes magazine reports that the Shelton Group, a green marketing firm based in Knoxville, Tenn., had 1,105 Americans complete online surveys in an effort to find out what...

Judge Robert A. Wherry, Jr., took a novel approach when outlining the facts of a recent Tax Court case involving a waitress who received a winning lottery ticket from a customer. The facts of the case (Tonda L. Dickerson v. Commissioner, TC Memo...

A case brought before a federal district court this month once again demonstrated the perils faced by anyone who becomes involved in running a financially distressed company. The court concluded that the volunteer chairman of the board of a...

Tonda Dickerson was one lucky waitress - at least until she got to Tax Court. One day in 1999, while Dickerson was working at a Waffle House restaurant, a regular customer gave her a lottery ticket. Unbeknownst to both the customer and Dickerson,...

If you know people who might not file their returns because they don't have the money to pay the tax, the IRS may offer them some assistance. The IRS has expanded its so-called Fresh Start initiative to help financially distressed taxpayers by...

Do you have friends or relatives who have failed to file income tax returns in prior years? The IRS may be holding refunds meant for them. Some people whose withholding exceeds their tax liability don't file tax returns. As a result, the IRS is...