Tax Legal Questions

It sounds like you have two separate issues. The IRS does not call people out of the blue. Therefore, if you are receiving threatening phone calls accusing you of tax fraud and saying that immediate legal action will be taken if you don't pay up, you are likely yourself the victim of attempted fraud: most, if not all, of those calls are scams. Report the call to the police and do NOT respond to them. As for your failure to file past returns: you ideally need to correct that situation sooner rather than later. Find a good CPA that has experience with tax controversy matters and have the CPA help you put together and file the returns you should have filed and pay as much of the resulting tax liability as you can as quickly as possible. Then, don't fail to file returns in the future. Best wishes to you.... Read More

Your question is a bit odd. The taxes paid in connection with sale of a home are the documentary transfer tax. It is treated like all the other expenses of sale, essentially as an offset to the sale price, thereby reducing the gain on the sale, if any. Losses on the sale of a personal residence are not deductible. Perhaps some tax was withheld and paid to the Franchise Tax Board. If it was reported by escrow to your girlfriend, then it is hers, not yours. If (or to the extent) it was reported as paid for you, then you get to deduct it on your federal return and to treat is as withholding tax paid to the state.... Read More

Unfortunatly, you will need to find either a good CPA who can help you work with the IRS or a good tax attorney who does tax controversy work to help. I don't do tax controversies myself; I only do tax planning and some gift and estate tax returns. However, there are good attorneys and good CPAs out there who can help you.... Read More

In Alabama, the Business Privilege Tax (BPT) is assessed against any business entity that is in existence. The law is worded in such a way that the BPT is owed merely due to the entity's existence, and thus whether a business actually operated does not affect the fact that the BPT is owed. The minimum amount for the BPT is $100 annually, and the amount of the BPT increases as the business earns more money. In order to prevent owing the BPT in the future, you should formally dissolve the business entity. Otherwise, it will continue to accrue BPT as long as it is in existence. The BPT is assessed against the business entity. You should not be personally liable for the BPT, unless the Alabama Department of Revenue has entered an assessment or filed a lien that specifically lists your individual name.... Read More

The gas company's asking for a W-9 does not necessarily mean that any damages they pay you will be taxable income, no. But they will generally be required to issue a 1099 if they are going to deduct the damages against their own taxable income, and the W-9 is needed for them to be able to do that. Whether or not the payment is taxable income to you is a completely separate question that you will need to answer when you file your income taxes for the year you receive the payment. You should consult a competent income tax preparer to determine that answer.... Read More

DON'T STEAL YOUR KID'S MONEY!!! The child received a settlement because she was injured or her parent died and you want to steal her money to party and buy drugs. If you want money, get off your lazy ass, stop getting wasted and get a job. Maybe your kid will respect you someday. If you steal her money, the day she turns 18, you'll never see her again.... Read More

First, you can't go to prison for not filing your taxes. You CAN go to prison for LYING on your tax forms (unless you're Hillary, then an apology makes everything all better). The taxes taken out of your paychecks are an estimate of your tax liability based on your wages. Say two people have the same job, making the same pay. Bob has no other income while Ashley gets $50,000 a year in dividends from stock she owns. Bob's income tax will be much less than Ashley's both have to file income tax returns to calculate the exact amount of their taxes; Bob will probably get a refund while Ashley will probably have to pay several thousand dollars more. If you haven't filed your taxes for several years, you need to consult a tax attorney.... Read More

You need to determine the fair market value of the property at the time you inherited it (generally, this means the date of death of your late husband, if he was the owner of the property). That is the new basis that you receive in the property for purposes of calculating capital gains or losses on a sale. Then, when you sell the property, in very big-picture terms, you subtract your basis from the sales price to determine the capital gains on the sale. The capital gains are subject to income taxes; the rest would be a recovery of your basis and not be subject to income taxes. The entire sales proceeds and your basis must be reported to the IRS on your income tax return, but not all of the sales proceeds would be taxable unless you have a $0 basis.... Read More

The certificate of release for a federal tax lien should list the tax year(s) that were released. This document means that the balances for those years were resolved, either due to you satisfying the lien via payment, or due to the statute of limitations for collection expiring. Although the lien is released, it will remain on your credit history as a negative item unless you apply to have the lien withdrawn.... Read More

Although you should consult with your accountant to confirm, a properly prepared enhanced life estate deed, also known as a lady bird deed, is not a completed gift upon execution because the grantor retains the right to revoke the beneficiaries remainder interest.  Therefore, the remainder beneficiaries should receive a stepped-up basis in the property.  This stepped-up basis is the fair market value as of the date of death.  ... Read More

Good Morning, The first step is to reach out to the Internal Revenue Service and Franchise Tax Board to see what records they have for you.  It is possible that they have been preparing tax returns for you and assessing liabilities each year.  If you have an existing tax liability then we would want to obtain a collection hold to prevent bank levies and wage garnishments while we work to resolve the underlying liability. If you were due refunds, most of those are lost to the statute of limitations, but it may be possible to claim your refunds for 2013, 2014, and 2015. Let me know if you need any assistance resolving these issues. Best regards, Adam Brewer, Esq.... Read More

If the divorce decree allows your ex to claim your daughter in alternating years, then he is presumptively eligible to do so. Unfortunately, how much time he spends with her does not matter; it's the payment of support. You may be able to successfully defend yourself against his claims if he was not paying, and you might be able to successfully win with the IRS if he claims her on some of his returns for years you also claimed her, but you will have to deal with the provision in the agreement that gives him the right to claim her. Best wishes to you.... Read More

Changing your divorce settlement is not a taxation question; it's a family law question. You may get better answers on that issue if you post the question again using family law or divorce as the topic. As to the issue of your ex-husband claiming a deduction for your daughter in a year that you were supposed to get the deduction under your existing settlement agreement: you can still claim her, if the agreement gives you the right to claim her for 2015. However, the IRS may ask either you or him (or both of you) to explain why you are both claiming the same child and produce evidence of who is entitled to the deduction. If you have a signed agreement that says you are to get the deduction for her in 2015, then that would be what you show to the IRS. If your agreement isn't clear on who gets the deduction, or if I misunderstood your post and your ex-husband is given the right to the deduction for your daughter in 2015 (or in all years), then you can't claim her unless and until you can get a different agreement. In that case, again, you will need a divorce lawyer, not a tax lawyer. Best wishes to you.... Read More