Tax news of interest to investors came mainly from the courts this week, though the IRS gave paid tax return preparers something to groan about.
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Featured articles
- Investment risk. The second installment in our series of articles on investment risk deals with a common misunderstanding of the “cruel math” of investment losses.
- Part-time gambler or trader. While it was only a summary opinion, a Tax Court decision finding a taxpayer could be a professional gambler despite pursuing the activity part-time may have implications for part-time traders.
- Same-sex couples. The tax law makes it more expensive for an employee to receive company-provided health benefits for a same-sex partner than an opposite-sex spouse. Google has adopted a policy to remedy that situation.
@Congress
Just one development of note: last week we noted that there would be an attempt to include estate tax provisions in the small business tax bill, and that attempt appears to have failed. The small business bill remains pending, as does the war funding bill that includes (in one version, at least) new restrictions on grantor retained annuity trusts.
@Court
- Billionaire Philip Anschutz lost a big tax case involving a prepaid forward contract, which is supposed to make it possible for the owner of shares to receive money for them without being treated as having made a sale.
- A federal appeals court upheld the three-year sentence of actor Wesley Snipes for willful failure to file income tax returns.
@IRS
- Proposed regulations would impose a $50 per year user fee on paid tax return preparers.
- Informal guidance on the Making Work Pay Credit
- IRS tax tips for military
@Fairmark
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