IRS Announces Moratorium on the Employee Retention Credit and Provides Guidance for Civil Penalty Amnesty to Withdrawing Improper Claims, Also Known As - Don’t Deposit That Check and Hire Legal Counsel The expansion and strong marketing tactics of good-for-nothing “accounting advisors” who encouraged taxpayers to qualify for the Employee Retention Credit (“ERC”) when they did not technically qualify has caused…
Litigation is time-consuming and expensive. It is therefore no surprise that most litigation concludes, not by trial, but rather through the parties agreeing to settle their differences through execution of a settlement agreement. Each settlement agreement is different. In most instances, however, a standard agreement will address payment by one…
Senate Finance Chairman Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) and U.S. Representative Earl Blumenauer (D-Ore.) have reintroduced legislation to put a stop to federal alcohol taxes on kombucha companies. If you’re not a regular kombucha drinker, chances are that you’ve seen it for sale in Whole Foods stores—or on tap in your favorite…
As housing prices continue rising, even in the face of high interest rates, there are many calls to increase housing construction. But some voices, including on the progressive left, oppose development, wrongly saying it won’t help affordability. What is the source of this “supply skepticism”—a belief that increased housing supply…
State tax coffers in California keep climbing. The California Department of Tax and Fee Administration (CDTFA) has reported cannabis tax revenue for the third quarter of 2023. As of November 16, 2023, total cannabis tax revenue from third-quarter returns is $269.3 million. This includes California's cannabis excise tax, which generated…
Gifting sounds nice in theory, but it can be complicated in practice, particularly when it comes to transfers by or to foreign persons. The Internal Revenue Service (“IRS”), suspecting wrongdoers at every turn, has been busy recently applying pressure in the international realm. This has triggered several court decisions, two…
Approximately 95% of married couples file joint tax returns. There is a strong knee-jerk reaction to file jointly, and tax return preparers may assume that's what you want because most people do. Yet that simple step makes each spouse liable for everything on the return–and anything that might not be…
Some mutual funds inflict great damage on your 1040. Defend yourself. By William Baldwin, Senior Contributor Winter: the season in which fund owners incur self-inflicted wounds. Investors who make the mistake of holding stock mutual funds in taxable accounts are at risk of having unwanted distributions dumped in their laps.…
The SECURE Act 2.0, enacted at the end of 2022, created a new type of qualified charitable distribution (QCD) that generally is being called the Legacy IRA. As I’ve said before, QCDs are the best way for most people age 70½ or older to make charitable contributions. When you’re 70½…
The Financial Crimes Enforcement Network—more commonly known as FinCEN—in close coordination with the Internal Revenue Service Criminal Investigation—sometimes referred to as CI or IRS-CI—issued an alert to financial institutions on fraud schemes related to the COVID-19 Employee Retention Credit (ERC). The alert provides an overview of some indicators associated with…
For 40 years, PNC has calculated the prices of the 12 gifts from the classic holiday song, "The Twelve Days of Christmas." This year, increases in the annual Christmas Price Index® (PNC CPI) are primarily driven by labor costs, mirroring the U.S. economy. CPI The PNC CPI is a light-hearted…
In a declining economy, startups face an uphill battle when it comes to securing funding.…
With all of the recent news about artificial intelligence (AI), it got me thinking about…
A while back, I took a couple of my grandchildren on a tour of the…
Startups face numerous challenges on their journey to success, and failing to overcome any one…
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