William Byrnes' Tax, Wealth, and Risk Intelligence

William Byrnes (Texas A&M) tax & compliance articles

Posts Tagged ‘Audit’

IRS High Net Worth Initiative: Fearsome Beast or Paper Tiger?

Posted by William Byrnes on August 16, 2011


The IRS commenced the Large Business and International Division’s high-wealth industry group (“HNW Initiative”) in October 2009 with the aim of examining high-net worth individuals for income tax compliance. But the Service may be “using more rhetoric than resources,” according to Syracuse University’s Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse (TRAC). TRAC’s April 14 report, based on information compiled from public records, accuses the IRS of having “very skimpy” audit goals for the HNW initiative.

TRAC’s orginal goal was to audit a mere 122 returns for the 2011 fiscal year. However, according to reports, TRAC will fall far short of this modest benchmark, and instead only audit 19% of the projected returns for the first six months of the year.

Read this complete analysis of the impact at AdvisorFX (sign up for a free trial subscription with full access to all of the planning libraries and client presentations if you are not already a subscriber)

Posted in Wealth Management | Tagged: , , , , , , , | Leave a Comment »

Aggressive IRS Gift Tax Audit Initiative: John Does Summons

Posted by William Byrnes on July 29, 2011


In recent years, the IRS has increased  its search for taxpayers who fail to disclose a gift tax return for reportable transactions. Now, the Justice Department’s Tax Division is getting in on the action, initiating an unprecedented fishing expedition and scouring state government records for information that may lead to taxpayers who have failed to file a gift tax return.

The Justice Department hopes to collect the identities of taxpayers who have gifted real property to relatives without reporting the transaction to the IRS. Read this complete analysis of the impact at AdvisorFX (sign up for a free trial subscription with full access to all of the planning libraries and client presentations if you are not already a subscriber).

Posted in Taxation, Wealth Management | Tagged: , , , , , , , | Leave a Comment »

 
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