First Wednesday Tax Forum

The next First Wednesday Tax Forum will actually be held on the second Wednesday, January 13, 2010. Special Agents Todd Norwood and Elisa Rodriguez of IRS Criminal Investigation will be speaking on Refund Fraud and Fraud Detection. This will be an interesting and informative presentation. As tax season arrives, learn what you need to know to protect yourself and your clients.

Requisite Knowledge and Experience: None is needed

Advance Preparation: None is needed.

This is an update presentation.

The presentation is lecture style.

The First Wednesday Tax Forum will meet from 7:30-9:10 AM at the University of Phoenix, Dallas/Ft. Worth Campus. The University of Phoenix Campus is located in Churchill Tower, 12400 Coit Road, Dallas, Texas. Park in the parking garage behind the building. Come to the front of the building on the first floor. Registration is $15 per course. CPAs and enrolled agents receive 2 hours of CPE credit. If you plan to attend, please send an e-mail to dawn@tjtaxlaw.com. Make checks payable to Townsend & Jones, L.L.P., and mail to 8100 Lomo Alto, Suite 238, Dallas, Texas 75225. Phone 214-696-2661.

National Taxpayer Advocate's 2009 Annual Report to Congress

Nina Olson, the National Taxpayer Advocate, has released her Annual Report. The report can be found here.

*New* The return preparer review final report is now available.

The IRS has released it final report on return preparers and the report can be found here.  The report contains recommendations for oversight of return preparers.

How to Audit Proof A Tax Return

An article has appeared in Forbes on "Ten Ways to Audit Proof Your Tax Return". The articles advises one way is not to file electronically.

Taxpayer Cannot Rely on Google to Prove Reasonable Cause

Good-faith reliance on advice from an independent, competent professional as to the tax treatment of an item may meet the reasonable cause requirement for abatement of penalties. The Tax Court in Woodard v. Commissioner did not accept Mr. Woodard's argument that his research on the Internet using the Google search engine provided him with reasonable cause for the position he took when filing his 2004 tax return.

Tax Court Rules Cancellation of Debt Not Income

In the recent case of McCormick v Commissioner, the Tax Court held for the IRS to determine the amount of cancellation of indebtedness income properly attributed to the taxpayers, the Tax Court must determine the amount of the CitiFinancial and Chase debt that was definite and liquidated.


In this case, the Tax Court found that the IRS could not rely on the Forms 1099-C submitted by CitiFinancial and Chase as evidence of the amount of debt that was definite and liquidated. Section 6201(d) provides that in any court proceeding, if a taxpayer asserts a reasonable dispute with respect to any item of income reported on an information return and has fully cooperated, the IRS shall have the burden of producing reasonable and probative information concerning the deficiency in addition to the information return. In this case the taxpyaers asserted reasonable disputes with respect to the amounts reported by CitiFinancial and Chase. The IRSfailed to produce reasonable and probative information independent of the third-party information returns. Thus, the Tax Court held for the taxpayers.

Who Is Being Convicted of Tax Crimes

For those of you who may have an interest in who is being prosecuted for tax crimes here is a link from TIGTA with some interesting information.

Commissioner's Advice to Corporate Directors

IRS Commissioner Doug Shulman addressed the National Associaton of Corporate Directors Governance Conference and gave them certain advice. You can see the Commissioner's remarks here.

Annual Report to Congress on the Whistleblower Statute

The Department of the Treasury has published its annual report on the Whistleblower statute. The report can be found here.

Whistleblower Guidance from the IRS

The IRS has published guidance to provide procedures for processing and examining referrals received from the Whistleblower’s Office (WBO) regarding IRC 7623(b). Due to a change to IRC 7623, there are now two types of Whistleblower informant claim cases:

IRC 7623(a) discretionary award cases, “A” cases, and
IRC 7623(b) mandatory award cases, “B” cases.

The guidance can be found here.