Tax season has started which means two things:
1, You have questions; and
2, The IRS is only going to answer 70% of them.
So I’m going to take a stab at answering some of your questions LIVE. We’ll give it a whirl via CoverItLive on the blog on January 20, 2012, at 1:00 pm. But this isn’t a no holds barred tax free for all. There are some ground rules. I am, after all, an attorney.
- Keep your personally identifiable information out of your question. You can’t take it back once it’s out there on the interwebs. So use a little common sense.
- I’ll answer as many questions as I can in the space of an hour. Don’t resend the same question and don’t get annoyed if I don’t answer.
- I live in Philly and I can barely make out our crazy tax laws. With that in mind, I won’t answer your state and local questions, sorry.
- This is meant to be a quick answer, to get you thinking or looking in the right direction. It is not a substitute for consulting with a competent tax professional, i.e., if you’re being audited, if there are IRS collections agents on your doorstep, if you are considering fleeing to Namibia to avoid criminal charges, don’t ask me what I think, contact your tax professional. That’s like bleeding profusely from a severed limb and writing into to the folks at Web MD to see what they think – they’re going to tell you to see a freakin’ doctor!
- If you’re looking for representation, this isn’t the place to ask me. If you want to find out more about my practice, you can check out my web page. Otherwise, there’s no attorney-client thing going on here. If you don’t have a representation letter from me, I don’t represent you. Capiche?
- Believe it or not, I didn’t grow up under a rock. I’ve been at this blogging thing for a bit. So if you think you’re being clever by sending your advertisement/promotion/tax treatise/election propaganda wrapped up in the guise of a question, you’re not. You’re just annoying. And rude.
- And speaking of rude, don’t be. Not just because well, it’s rude, but because my mother could be reading and she already worries about me and she’s having a heart procedure next week (I’m not making this up). She doesn’t need any more stress and neither do I.
- And because the IRS has lots and lots of rules about this stuff, here’s my IRS Circular 230 notice: In order to comply with requirements imposed by the IRS, I must inform you that any U.S. federal tax advice contained in this web site is not intended or written to be used, and cannot be used, for the purpose of (i) avoiding penalties under the Internal Revenue Code or (ii) promoting, marketing or recommending to another party any transaction or matter that is contained in this document. So there.
I reserve the right to add more caveats – that’s what lawyers do. For more info about asking questions – or to find out how to ask a question through more traditional means (“the email” as Mom would say) – check out this prior post.
Of course, this isn’t just for taxpayers. I’m hoping my colleagues will chime in, too. See you all back here:
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