Australia is reeling from a billion-dollar TikTok tax fraud scheme. Apparently, social media influencers helped entice nearly 60,000 people to claim fraudulent refunds on goods and services taxes that they never actually paid. The social media posts reportedly promised that the refunds were like a temporary loan from the government,…

It’s been just over three and a half years since Alex M. Azar II, Secretary of Health and Human Services, declared that Covid-19 constituted a public health emergency. In the months that followed, government officials scrambled to find a way to ease economic shortfalls related to the pandemic through a…

Users of tax prep websites in seven states have filed a class action lawsuit against Google GOOG , LLC, claiming the company engaged in wiretapping. According to court documents, the company’s actions allegedly resulted in the involuntary transmission of sensitive personal information including income, refund amounts, filing status, and scholarship…

A recent tax case is one of the saddest ever and shows how the tax law often has intended consequences. The taxpayers were a married couple who inherited a business from the husband’s brother. After a couple of years, the husband discovered the business manager was stealing. He fired the…

The ERC is a refundable tax credit designed for businesses who continued paying employees while shut down due to the COVID-19 pandemic or who had significant declines in gross receipts from March 13, 2020, to Dec. 31, 2021. That’s a limited period, but businesses can typically file claims for the…

This segment of What’s Ahead lays out the telltale signs for a possible Reaganesque candidate emerging from tomorrow’s Republican debate. Reagan projected an exciting, optimistic view of the future, while effectively eviscerating the destructive policies and principles of his opponents. He never came across as acerbic or angry. In Reagan’s…

Section 871(m) treats payments under equity derivative contracts that reference U.S.-source dividends as if they are equivalent to U.S.-source dividends, potentially triggering a U.S. withholding tax. Reg. section 1.871-15(q) interprets section 871(m) to exempt qualified derivatives dealers (QDDs) from tax and withholding requirements if overwithholding would occur. Published September 12,…

IRS Criminal Investigation officials have identified the individual killed on Aug. 17 in a training incident at the Federal Correctional Institution, Phoenix, firing range. The deceased is Special Agent Patrick Bauer, 47, a long-time resident of Arizona. Bauer is survived by his wife and four children. In addition to being…

The IRS has announced expansive tax relief for Hawaii wildfire victims in Maui and Hawaii counties. These taxpayers now have until Feb. 15, 2024, to file various federal individual and business tax returns and make tax payments. The IRS is offering relief to any area designated by the Federal Emergency…

Mark Holmes is noted as being one of the better writers among Tax Court judges. His work on the Estate of Michael Jackson read like a novel. This month he may have gone off the beam a bit in a bench opinion. There is something rather tasteless in bringing up…