Did you know that the government may be able to seize your property – even if you’re not accused of a crime? It’s true. Federal and state statutes allow authorities to take your property through a process called civil forfeiture. Test your knowledge here: [forminator_quiz id=”53484″] — To listen to the podcast episode, you can…
We all know that under the Constitution, the government cannot deny anyone life, liberty, or property without due process of law. However, that hasn’t stopped federal and state authorities from seizing property even when a crime has not been committed. Many taxpayers don’t understand the laws and guidelines that apply to civil forfeiture. In this week’s…
Last year, three tax preparers sued the Internal Revenue Service to prevent the agency from pushing ahead with new regulations. The three were successful – and the IRS filed an appeal. Yesterday, the IRS had the chance to tell a panel of judges why the regulations are appropriate. Were those oral arguments convincing?
On January 18, 2013, a federal court stopped IRS “dead in its tracks” from enforcing its new regulatory scheme for registered tax-return preparers. In response, the IRS filed a motion to stay the injunction – that’s a lawyerly way of saying that the IRS asked the court not to enforce the injunction and to allow…
Tax season officially got started yesterday as the Internal Revenue Service began accepting most taxpayer returns. Opening day for the IRS had been delayed by more than a week, following a last-minute tax deal meted out by Congress in early January. That wouldn’t be the only challenge for the agency this month: just days before…
It all started with a ping. Just before noon, I got an interesting tweet. A flurry of tweets, Facebook messages, and emails followed. It was, in the grand scheme of my day, kind of a big deal. I had been following the IRS’ plans to regulate preparers more or less since then Commissioner Doug Shulman…
Two things happened on Sunday. One, I sat down for an interview with Dan Alban, the lead attorney in Loving et al v. Commissioner (downloads as a pdf). And two, I had friends over to the new house for a chat. You might think the two are completely unrelated. But you’d be wrong. You see,…
“Because I said so.” As a parent, I’ve grown to love the power of those words. But as a professional? Not so much. At work, I like to have rules. And I like to think we have those rules for a reason. I don’t like it when rules don’t make sense, appear arbitrary, or aren’t…