The IRS operates a whistleblower program by which individuals who tip off the government about tax evasion can potentially receive monetary awards. Critics sometimes contend that whistleblowers have to wait too long for the IRS to act on applications for awards. But when large amounts of unpaid taxes are involved, the awards to whistleblowers can […]

Let’s continue the discussion we began last week about the creation of a common reporting standard (CRS) for revenue agencies around the world to exchange information about tax compliance. The CRS won’t take formal effect until September 2017. But more than 100 counties have already agreed to participate. In this part of the post, we […]

The international tax landscape has changed radically in recent years. The IRS enforcement crackdown on offshore account reporting is only one aspect of this. Also looming large of course is passage by Congress of the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA) and the intergovernmental agreements worked out by the Treasury Department to enforce it. But […]

In part one of this post, we began discussing the challenges you can face as a business owner if you fall behind on your payroll taxes. If your business runs into cashflow problems, it can be tempting to dip into the money you withheld from employees’ wage for payroll taxes. This may seem like merely […]

“I can resist everything except temptation,” quipped the flamboyant Victorian poet Oscar Wilde. To be sure, you may feel you have more ability to resist your particular temptations than Wilde had to resist his. But if you are a business owner who is tempted to dip into payroll taxes withheld from employees to cover cashflow […]

A few years ago, Congress got the idea that businesses could be more accurate in reporting all of their income. The concern was that there was a significant gap between taxable income and income reported on tax returns. To respond to this concern, Congress added a provision to the tax code to require credit-card companies […]

One by one, the giants of Swiss banking have fallen. They have been forced to submit to the long-running American enforcement crackdown on offshore accounts. That crackdown is not only long-running; the standards for compliance have been stepped up since Congress passed the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA) in 2010. The first Swiss giant […]

For those who are in business for themselves as sole proprietors, managing tax compliance is an important task. Not only is there income tax and the obligation to report profits, but also self-employment tax, quarterly estimated tax reporting, social security and Medicare taxes and tax withholdings, federal unemployment tax, and other potential tax obligations as […]

Data privacy is a critical concern in the online. Breaches of personal information can lead to identity theft, fraud and other serious problems for those who information is compromised. In recent years, there have been numerous widespread significant data breaches in the private sector, at companies such as Target and EBay. Breaches have occurred in […]

Running a business can have stressful aspects under any circumstances. Certain things though can add to the stress a business owner experiences. One is finding out from the Internal Revenue Service that their business is going to be audited. Business audits by the Internal Revenue Service can be looking at all different kinds of things […]