Ways to cut your taxes by year-end

Here are key areas to focus on before year-end.

• Adjusted gross income
• Investment gains and losses
• Charitable giving
• Alternative minimum tax
• Medical costs
• Health insurance
• Tax-free gifts for education or other purposes
• Tax-preparation costs

Article here (via taxprof blog).

 

Tax Dos and Don'ts of hiring your child

Does your child work in your family business? Here's a tip: don't pay the wages in pizza if you want to pass muster with the IRS.

Article here. 

The story is based on a parent's attempt to deduct her children's wages as a business expense.

Employing your minor children is legal, as is deducting their pay as a business expense. But the judge found fault with the parent's method of paying her children, which was often not in cash. The decision says she used most of the children's wages to buy either meals, often of pizza, or tutoring services, things that a parent would

typically pay for.

Record Numbers of Americans are renouncing their US citizenship

The reason? Taxes, and a campaign by the IRS to go after non-residents and taxes they owe.

Article here.  (via Taxprof blog).

From the article:

The tax dragnet has also swept up many middle-income Americans living abroad, prompting some to give up their U.S. citizenship. While people who renounce aren't freed of taxes due for past years, they don't want to risk sizable taxes and penalties for them and their children in the years ahead, experts say. Nearly 8,000 taxpayers have renounced U.S. citizenship in the past five years, Mr. Mitchel found, compared with fewer than 5,000 in the preceding decade. ...

IRS used Google Maps to spy on taxpayers and organizations

Agents from the IRS are using Google Maps as part of their tool kit to audit taxpayers and organizations, The Daily Caller has learned.

A redacted IRS letter dated Sept. 8, 2011 [Priv. Ltr. Rul. 2013-13-031] reveals that at least in one case the IRS’s examiners used photos of a property, obtained through Google Maps, as evidence to revoke the 501(c)(4) status of a homeowner’s association.

Article here. and Article here. 

They have to get a piece of everything: IRS says bike-share programs not free

From the article: Bike share programs are primarily for short-term use in urban areas as alternatives to private vehicles, taxis or mass transit. Bikes are rented at one docking station and may be returned there or at any other docking station. The stated goals are reducing traffic congestion, noise and air pollution. And are they tax-free? Nope, not according to the IRS.
Article here. 

One bonus from the government shutdown: Tax season will be delayed - but April 15 stays the same

The IRS announced yesterday that due to the government shutdown, the start of tax season will be delayed. Article here. But tax payers will still need to file their taxes by April 15, sorry, Charlie.

Jail time for attorney who claimed tax law expertise

A Hawaii personal injury attorney who advertised his tax law expertise has been sentenced to 20 months in federal prison for understating his income on his own 2006 return.

Article here. 

He earned about $630,000 in 2006, but told the feds his gross income was a little under $300,000, according to the Associated Press.

What's the tax ramification for a same-gender couple?

In August of this year, the IRS issued a ruling (Notice 2013-61) that rules that same- gender couples
legally married in jurisdictions that recognize their marriages, will be treated as married for federal tax purposes. The ruling applies regardless of whether the couple lives in a jurisdiction that recognizes same-sex marriage or a jurisdiction that does not recognize same-sex marriage.

:For More information: IRS.gov