The Internal Revenue Service moves forward with its plan to clarify rewards and awards for taxpayers providing information regarding violations of tax laws, without making any of the changes recommended by practitioners.

IRS grants estate executors who want to claim portability up to 15 months after the decedent's death to file an estate tax return.

The extension of a 2 percentage point payroll tax cut through the end of the year moves a step closer to passage after a House-Senate conference committee approves an agreement brokered just minutes before a midnight deadline to assure a House and Senate vote before the Presidents' Day recess.

In Karlen v. Comr., the Tax Court, in a summary opinion that may not be appealed or cited as precedent, determined that distributions from the taxpayers' §529 plan accounts were includible in their gross income. The taxpayers were not, however, liable for the 10% penalty that is imposed on withdrawals not used for educational expenses.

In Adam v. U.S., No. 8:05-cv-00987 (C.D. Cal. 12/28/11), the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California, in a case remanded by the Ninth Circuit, dismissed two siblings' suit for quiet title to property, holding that they only held bare legal title to the property as nominees for their parents under California law and, therefore, lacked standing under 28 USC §2410 (Judiciary and Judiciary Procedure) to challenge federal tax liens filed against their parents that attached to the property.

 

A last-minute agreement to satisfy the concerns of Senate Republicans and Maryland Democrats on the payroll tax cut conference committee will allow lawmakers to move ahead on a final floor vote to extend the tax break, the committee's leaders announced early today.

As is widely known, taxpayers must pay interest on tax deficiencies and the IRS must pay interest on overpayments. The interest rates charged by the IRS for deficiencies is not surprisingly higher than the interest rate paid on overpayments.

In In re Mortensen, we have what appears to be one of the first decisions to consider whether an individual may use a state's - in this case Alaska's - self-settled asset protection spendthrift trust statute as a shield in a federal bankruptcy proceeding. On the facts set forth below, the bankruptcy court determined that he could not, a decision that may have broader implications depending on whether the case was decided solely on its "bad" facts, or on a broader reading of the federal bankruptcy Code.

 

House Majority Leader Cantor says that lawmakers have reached a tentative “framework” for an agreement to extend the payroll tax cut and so-called “doc fix” through the end of 2012 without using any new tax increases as offsets for the package.