As with any other criminal activity, tax crimes are serious and require extensive investigations. And, just like the other federal law enforcement agencies, the IRS has special agents that investigate and help to prosecute people for committing such crimes. In fact, the IRS has its own Criminal Investigation Division and is the only federal agency with the authority to conduct investigations into potential Read More

Whenever you are dealing with taxes or the IRS, the list of unknowns and potential issues is neverending. This is especially true in today’s world, where everything is done on a global scale. If you are a taxpayer (as an individual or a business) living in the United States, then you should be used to filing your taxes every year. But what if you have foreign bank accounts or investments? Who tracks that money and Read More

Wage garnishment is a type of IRS tax levy and is a means of collection by the IRS against a taxpayer who owes taxes, penalties or interest to the IRS. A levy is the IRS’s right to seize your property. So when the IRS garnishes your wages, it means that they have the right to take a percentage of your income directly out of your paycheck. Unfortunately, the IRS’s right to impose a levy against your wages is Read More

If you have outstanding tax debts, then the IRS can impose a number of different penalties on you until your debt is paid in full. Although the penalty should never come as a surprise, as the IRS typically sends lots of notices to warn you before taking action, it’s still a scary and stressful time all the same. So what are some of the things the IRS can do if you have unpaid taxes? One of the main things the IRS Read More

Like many things to do with technology, cryptocurrency has evolved much faster than the laws designed to regulate it. Since there is money involved, the level of governmental regulations attempting to define the laws around it is that much higher. One of the most pressing and most difficult areas of regulation involving cryptocurrency is that of taxation. First, what are cryptocurrencies? They are essentially Read More

Itemized deductions have been a time-honored tradition for taxpayers for years and the creativity that they can inspire have been a marvel. However, as the saying goes, all good things must come to an end, and under the new Tax Cuts and Job Act of 2017 (TCJA), numerous cherished itemized deductions have been eliminated in favor of a doubling of the standard deduction. Let us take a moment to remember the itemized Read More

As long as there are taxes, there will be efforts to stash assets to avoid paying them. With the recent crackdown of the last 10 years of anonymous bank accounts that forced numerous offshore banks to cough up details about their account holders and their assets, the next “it” place to hide assets may be (or in many cases, already is) virtual currency. The draw is undeniable considering that cryptocurrencies are Read More

One of the attractive features of cryptocurrency has been its anonymity and privacy. While no doubt many owners of cryptocurrency have declared it as income on their income tax returns and paid the necessary capital gains or other taxes, the IRS is still very concerned that there are those who have not. Recently, however, the IRS was able to make a giant leap forward in its quest to uncover the people behind the Read More

Pass-through taxation has been one of the stalwarts of tax policy that is used by just about anyone with self-employment income, either individually or through a limited legal entity such as a limited liability company or limited liability partnership. Pass-through taxation allows these individuals to “pass through” their business earnings and declare them on their personal income tax thus saving the time and expense Read More

As soon as the Tax Cuts and Job Act (TCJA) was signed into law, just about everyone asked, “How does this affect my taxes?” Now that the ink has dried, we can start to answer that question more clearly and specifically. The bottom line, at least according to the Tax Policy Center, is that 95% of U.S. taxpayers, regardless of income level and tax bracket, will see a reduction in their tax liabilities starting in 2018. Read More