Guest Article

“I’m going to get a pedicure later,” my wife said to me one Saturday morning. I quickly replied, “You should start an OnlyFans so you can deduct it.” (Everything has a tax angle when you’re married to a tax person.) “Is that really a thing?” she inquired. “Well…” I said, “It depends...” (Nothing is certain when you’re married to a tax person.) “...ordinarily I would say no, but in this case, it might be necessary.” (Everything is a tax pun when you’re married to a tax person.) In the “post” covid era, many taxpayers have turned to the gig economy. (Aside from the number of companies paying workers as contractors when they should actually be employees, but that’s a different topic for a different time.) Many of these gig workers are new to being self- employed and wonder what exactly they can “write off.”

Sometimes my mind is not the safest place to be. I mean face it, a few issues ago I wrote on best practices for doing Al Capone’s tax returns. But how did I even get started thinking about the taxability of a business dealing in black market organs? Well, it started when someone on social media (perhaps looking to supplement the income from their tax practice) asked if the gain on selling a kidney was taxable and, if so, what would be the seller’s basis in the organ? Then there was that time I was having dinner and adult beverages with some tax colleagues in Las Vegas, and we started talking about that old urban legend about waking up in a bathtub full of ice missing a kidney. It was a fun night, and we all woke up with all of our kidneys and other organs in place. Nevertheless, I found myself wondering (and continuing to wonder) about the tax consequences of transacting in human body parts—one’s own or those illegally harvested from others. Turns out, there have been some court cases on the topic which means that the discussion is more than merely theoretical.

"I knew he was a crook when I married him." Come again? And you still married him? That's what I said in my head as it took every muscle in my face to keep my forehead from scowling. But instead, I said, "What do you mean?" "We always had good money and nice things, but we never paid taxes. I always owed when I was single. But when we got married, I stopped working and we never owed." Let me take a moment to rewind and get you up to speed. This taxpayer, let's call her Mrs. Bonnie for the purposes of this story, reached out because she needed to file last year's tax return. She was recently widowed, and her husband typically handled the tax filing. So, she was already feeling overwhelmed and lost when it happened. She went to the mailbox and pulled out mail from the IRS. It was a CP3219A , notifying her that credits claimed on a previous tax return were being disallowed by the IRS. Not only did she owe taxes, but she also owed accuracy related penalties. She only had 90 days to respond if she disagreed and didn't know what to do. When she reached out to me, she inquired about whether I could review previous year returns. Mrs. Bonnie wanted to make sure that they were "done right". This isn't a strange request. I told her that I would review the prior year to have a baseline and if I saw anything fishy, I'd bring it to her attention and perhaps look at another year. I didn't even make it to the signatures before the fishiness leaped off the page. I set up a meeting with her via Zoom to review my findings. As I begin to ask about some of the credits claimed and her husband's business her answers did not match what was on the return. That's when she let me know that she knew her husband, Mr. Clyde, was a crook when she married him. Mrs. Bonnie didn't know much about taxes, but she did a bit of research. She read about something called Innocent Spouse Relief and thought she may be eligible. Let's look at what Innocent Spouse Relief is and why Mrs. Bonnie was not eligible, but your client may be.

A recently filed lawsuit against CohnReznick opens a window into a niche form of tax practice – compliance and planning around the Low-Income Housing Tax Credit . The case highlights a current controversy between investors seeking returns and not-for-profits seeking to insure continued affordability and their own interests to be just a bit cynical. We get to discuss some obscure tax issues and reflect on the question of who it is that is actually your client.

The story of Scott M. Hoensheid’s charitable planning gone awry as related by Judge Joseph W. Nega of the United States Tax Court is an interesting one. Click here to continue reading…

Beanie babies, Pokémon cards, POGs, and digital pictures of monkeys on the internet, one of these things is not like the others. All these are items that people may collect or at least have collected in the past. Maybe they were just collecting for fun, or perhaps they acquired in hopes of selling their items in the future for a profit. However, the IRS has highlighted only one of the items on this list as potentially being a collectible. A non-fungible token (NFT) “is a unique digital identifier that is recorded using distributed ledger technology and may be used to certify authenticity and ownership of an associated right or asset. Ownership of an NFT may provide the holder a right with respect to a digital file (such as a digital image).” NFTs run the gamut from bored apes (computer generated pictures of monkeys that sell for hundreds of thousands of dollars, not to be confused with board apes, which are monkey pictures on sandwich and surf boards and do not sell for hundreds of thousands of dollars) to Ruish Bronzelight (a DeFi Kingdoms online video game Warrior Wizard we met in “Tax Planning for DeFi Based Games”), and even event tickets (especially popular with crypto conferences). There is even at least one CPA who sells access to his tax practice via NFT. Click here to continue reading…

At its peak, Alphonse (Al) Capone’s criminal empire was worth approximately $1.3 billion when adjusted for inflation. On June 5, 1931, Capone was indicted on multiple counts of income tax evasion. At the time the maximum penalty for his offenses was 32 years in jail and $80,000 in fines (almost $1.6M in inflation adjusted dollars). The prosecution in Capone’s case “documented Capone's lavish spending, evidence of a colossal income. The government also submitted proof that Capone was aware of his obligation to pay federal income tax but failed to do so." Click here to keep reading about this fascinating case…

Every tax professional has at least one client that when asked about business mileage replies, “I don’t know; what did I have last year?” You may have read that last sentence and thought, “most of them.” Self-employed taxpayers generally know they must track their mileage, but it’s seldom done correctly, or at all. Vehicle deductions are an area frequently challenged by the IRS on examination as well as an area the taxpayer is unlikely to prevail without strong, contemporaneous documentation. That said, very few taxpayers keep perfect records, so what are the best practices for mileage deductions in the real world? Keep reading to find out!