In my first real job as an attorney, I made a huge mistake: I assumed I would have some time off. I had so much faith, in fact, that I made arrangements to fly home to visit my parents on Christmas Eve. But our office didn’t close on Christmas Eve. And the people in my…
Greg Roseman, a Deputy Director at the Internal Revenue Service, didn’t make any friends on the Hill last month when he refused to testify at a House Oversight Committee hearing. It was the second time in recent memory that an IRS employee had invoked a Fifth Amendment right not to testify: Roseman follows hot on…
I’ve spent much of this week de-icking my house. I’ve bailed water out of my basement, wiped mildew off of furniture, and emptied the dehumidifier more times than I care to count. I’m hardly alone: it’s been a wet one on the east coast. Heavy rains have been reported this summer from Maine to Florida….
Today, kids will decorate wagons with streamers and drag them down small-town streets while big marching bands play John Philip Sousa tunes. There will be floats and beauty queens with big smiles (and even bigger hair). Smells from cookouts and barbecues will fill neighborhoods as folks fire up the grill to make hotdogs, hamburgers, and…
The Internal Revenue Service will shutter its doors for the third time this summer as part of a series of furlough days. The next day for closure is coming up quickly: Friday, July 5, 2013. The furloughs are a reaction to the current budget situation, which includes the sequester. On furlough days, the IRS will…
Delays, delays, and more delays. That seems to be the trend this year as concerns mount about how to implement components of the Affordable Care Act (ACA), commonly called Obamacare or the Health Care Act. The White House has reacted to what’s being touted as a series of “operational challenges” by extending deadlines for coverage…
When the Supreme Court handed down its opinion last week on Windsor (the DOMA case), it surprised more than a few folks. Count those as surprised: the Internal Revenue Service which must now come to terms with how to treat what is sure to be an onslaught of amended returns and even more confusion. Some…
On Thursday, the U.S. Senate pushed through comprehensive immigration bill, Border Security, Economic Opportunity, and Immigration Modernization Act, S. 744 with a 68-32 vote. I’ll be honest: I haven’t read the whole thing yet. It’s a whopping 1,200 pages as passed. If you’re willing to wade through it all, you can find it here (a…
Goaaaaal! Football phenom, Lionel Messi, has reportedly scored in his battle against the Spanish authorities. The Spanish publication, El Periodico, has announced that the FC Barcelona star has reached an agreement with Spanish tax authorities and will not face tax charges. According to El Periodico, Messi has agreed to pay €15 million ($19,546,500 US) against…
Marc Rich, one of the most famous white-collar criminals in recent memory, has died in Switzerland at age 78, as the result of a stroke. Rich became a millionaire before he turned 50 – but not without controversy. The college dropout (he never finished New York University) found a profitable market in trade. By the…