Today, sports fans in New York were stunned to hear that New York State Attorney General, Eric T. Schneiderman, has issued a cease and desist order to two of the most popular daily fantasy sports site in the state: DraftKings and FanDuel. The Attorney General issued the order to protect consumers, claiming that games on…
Earlier this year, a federal grand jury handed down a 23 count indictment (downloads as a pdf) against Fesum Ogbazion and Kyle Wade for conspiracy and tax-related crimes. Fesum Ogbazion is the CEO and sole owner of Instant Tax Service (ITS) Financial, and his three companies: ITS Financial, Tax Tree, and TCA Financial. Wade was…
Australian-born Bindi Irwin has danced her way into the hearts of American television audiences with her star turn on season 21 of ABC’s “Dancing With The Stars” (DWTS). Tonight, she’ll dance with pro Derek Hough alongside just five other couples (Alek Skarlatos & Lindsay Arnold; Alexa PenaVega & Mark Ballas; Carlos PenaVega & Witney Carson;…
Change isn’t always a good thing. That was the message that Intuit heard loud and clear last year when the company made some changes to TurboTax desktop software. For 2015, the company yanked the interview sections for Schedule C (self-employment income and all expenses), Schedule D (investments), and Schedule E (rental and partnership income) from the…
Remember all those times your grandmother begged you to come visit? Apparently, some grandchildren in Austria didn’t visit… Whatever the reason, an Austrian grandmother went to great lengths to keep her family from getting her money, going so far as shredding €950,000 ($1,020,490 U.S.) just before she died. Not content to stop there, she also cut…
It just got a little (stress on little) bit cheaper for tax professionals to practice in 2016. As of November 1, 2015, the annual fee for a 2016 preparer tax identification number (PTIN) is $50 for new applications and for renewals. That’s a few dollars cheaper than the prior fee schedule ($64.25 for new registration…
If you follow me on social media, you know that my son asked me to pack candy for his school lunch today. That’s right, candy. We were out of sandwich bread at the house but we have bags and bags of Halloween candy in the kitchen so Charlie figured he’d take a stab at it…
As concerns mount over the recent proposal to turn over delinquent tax accounts to private debt collectors, Ways and Means Oversight Subcommittee Ranking Member John Lewis (D-GA), Ways and Means Committee Ranking Member Sander Levin (D-MI), and Budget Committee Ranking Member Chris Van Hollen (D-MD) have issued the following statement: It is misguided and harmful…
Those who fail to learn from history are doomed to repeat it. – Winston Churchill Sometimes it feels like the government does this best. Failed policies are often recycled – often many times – in some sort of desperate attempt to make them work. Or to spend taxpayer dollars to promote self-serving agendas. Sometimes it’s…
An Appellate Court has overturned a ruling made last year that stopped the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA) from challenging the Internal Revenue Service’s (IRS) new voluntary program to “credential” tax preparers. Initially, U.S. District Court Judge James E. Boasberg (yes, the same Judge Boasberg who wrote the Loving opinion that barred the IRS from…