Category: Houston

In most litigation, each party pays their own attorney fees regardless of who wins the case. This “American Rule” applies even when one party is clearly right and the other clearly wrong. But litigation against the government, such as tax litigation, presents a unique inequity. When taxpayers are forced to defend against an incorrect IRS……

Our federal tax system depends on voluntary compliance by a large segment of taxpayers. Encouraging compliance, while deterring and punishing non-compliance, remains the IRS’s greatest challenge. To meet this challenge, Congress has armed the IRS with a myriad of civil and criminal tax penalties. These penalties are designed to address different types of non-compliance, from……

Manufacturers and retailers frequently face the challenge of handling defective or obsolete inventory that cannot be sold. This situation often results in waste. The inventory has some utility or value, but the benefit of repurposing or rehabilitating the inventory is often outweighed by the cost of handling or repurposing the inventory. Examples are easy to……

One of the requirements for a document to be a tax return is that it is signed by the taxpayer under penalties of perjury. Most tax forms that are intended to be tax returns include a declaration at the bottom that includes the penalty of perjury language. But most tax returns today are filed electronically.……

The IRS’s historical abuses led Congress to create specific taxpayer rights, including rights stemming from collection due process (“CDP”) hearings. These administrative hearings are intended to pause IRS collection actions while the IRS Office of Appeals considers whether the collection is both lawful and warranted. One might assume these rights extend to any liability assessed……

There are quite a few tax court cases involving taxpayers who did not have sufficient records to substantiate their tax positions. This is probably more than half of the cases that end up in the U.S. Tax Court. But what about the opposite situation where there are too many records? How is one to contend……

In the tax world, excise taxes are often the neglected step-child. They take a back seat to income and estate taxes. They do not make the headlines very often. Excise taxes are largely transaction-based taxes that target specific industries or activities. The businesses that are subject to these taxes generally just pay them, and consider……

If you do not owe any tax for a year and you are certain of it, can you just file an income tax return that reports all zeros for income and lists the amount you paid to the IRS that you want refunded? I’ll refer to this as a “zero income-tax return.” This is a……

It is often said that a taxpayer is free to structure their affairs as they see fit and can even do so in a way to minimize or avoid paying taxes. While this is true, it is equally true that the IRS is not bound by the taxpayer’s characterization of transactions. The IRS has a……

When someone sets up their estate plan, one would hope that the probate process would result in the terms of the estate plan being carried out. State law often allows beneficiaries and heirs to change the terms of someone’s estate plan after they die. For example, in Texas, beneficiaries can usually agree to override the……