This PodCast is about late elections. Here, another taxpayer found out well after filing his return with less than stellar results from his trading activities that there had been an option to file an election under "475(f) to use mark to market accounting which also converts the transactions from short term capital gain/loss to ordinary gain/loss. The taxpayer had over $90,000 in net losses.

The materials can be downloaded at http://www.edzollars.com/2008-09-29_LateElection.pdf .

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This PodCast deals with the issue of a CPA that got 'creative' in planning with himself and his clients, and in his case he finds the Tax Court isn't amused. The case is Baisden v. Commissioner, TC Memo 2008-215 where a CPA attempted to get around the self-employment tax by paying 'royalties' from his sole proprietorship to himself. The case doesn't deal with that issue (he had conceded that matter by then) but rather deals with whether he was subject to the fraud penalty.

The materials are available for download at http://www.edzollars.com/2008-09-22_Fraud.pdf .

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This PodCast examines a difference in application of IRC "162(k) between the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals and the United States Tax Court given the Tax Court's decision in Ralston Purina v. Commissioner, 131 TC No. 4 that dealt with the taxpayer's attempt to claim a deduction for dividends paid to participants in its ESOP when it had to redeem certain stock from the ESOP to pay out terminated participants in that plan.

The materials can be downloaded from http://www.edzollars.com/2008-09-15_ESOP.pdf .

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The materials can be found at http://www.edzollars.com/2008-09-08_Alimony.pdf

This Podcast is sponsored by Leimberg Information Services, Inc. at http://www.leimbergservices.com

Please visit our software, books, and PowerPoint Presentations site at http://www.leimberg.com

Please visit our software, books, and PowerPoint Presentations site at http://www.leimberg.com

This PodCast reviews the requirements found in the regulations for obtaining the required support for a tax position, concentrating on the methods outlined in Reg. "1.6662-4(d) in the definition of "substantial authority" which are cross referenced multiple times when considering other levels of authority.

The materials can be downloaded from http://www.edzollars.com/2008-08-25_Penalty.pdf .

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This PodCast examines the United States Court of Federal Claims decision in Fisher, Trustee v. United States, 2008 TNT 154-7 where the court sided with the taxpayer and held that the proper treatment of amounts received in lieu of shares in the demutualization of Sun Life were to be treated under the open transaction doctrine rather than treated as a sale of shares with a zero basis. More on this topic can be found on LISI as Estate Planning Newsletter # 1330.

The materials can be found at http://www.edzollars.com/2008-08-18_OpenTrans.pdf .

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The IRS issued proposed regulations to explain the reduction of the NOL substitute in an S corporation setting when cancellation of debt is excluded from the S corporation's income under Section 108. While the regulations are in proposed form only, the "deemed NOL" rules have existed in the IRC since 2002, and Section 108 is likely to be an issue for S corporations who face economic challenges.

The materials for this podcast can be found at http://www.edzollars.com/2008-08-04_108andS.pdf .

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This podcast is the sequel to a November 2006 podcast on the same case--that of Kadillak v. Commissioner where an individual who was caught by the "dot bomb" crash of the technology stock of his former employer attempted to mitigate the damage caused by his ISO exercise and 83(b) election made at the height of the craze. A year later, Mr. Kadillak was no longer employed by the organization, the stock price had tanked, and when he sold the stock that he didn't have to surrender got stuck with a $3,000 per year AMT capital loss deduction (probably for lifetime) to "offset" a large prior year AMT liability.

The Ninth Circuit has now ruled on the case and, unfortunately for Mr. Kadillak, agreed with the Tax Court's decision. We look at the Section 83(b) election, it's downside risk that Mr. Kadillak obtained "up close and personal" experience with, and some general observations on counseling clients about the "what if" problem when they are sure they know what the future will hold.

The materials are available at http://www.edzollars.com/2008-08-04_83b.pdf .

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This PodCast is about the preparer standards and tax return positions. In the case of Wadsworth v. Commissioner, TC Memo 2008-171, we see a real world situation where a tax professional decided a position was not one that he could accept and what happened when the client decided to find another person who would take the requested position. As you might expect, the taxpayers don't fare well in the eyes of the court when they attempt to claim reliance on the advice of the professional that did sign off on the position.

The materials for this week are available at http://www.edzollars.com/2008-07-28_Preparer_Shop.pdf .

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