Jeb Burton

The IRS Inspector General reviewed federal employee tax compliance and their report is out. The report’s frustration with the lack of enforcement is palpable even in the title “The IRS Has Not Adequately Prioritized Federal Civilian Employee Nonfilers”. A total of $1.5 billion was owed by 149,000 federal civilian employees in FY 2021. The number of delinquent…

The Supreme Court released an interesting labor law opinion, Helix Energy Solutions Group, Inc. v. Hewitt. The Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938 (FLSA) requires “covered employees” to receive overtime pay for work over 40 hours a week. Employees who work “in a bona fide executive, administrative, or professional capacity” are not covered. Unfortunately, those words do…

The Income Verification Express Service (IVES) is the program that authorized third parties use to receive a copy of a tax transcript from the IRS. The IRS Inspector General reviewed the tax transcript request process and found that request volumes fluctuate considerably. In FY 2020, there were 12.4 million transcript requests which increased to 15.4 million in…

Protection of personal information is an advantage gained when using  a trust. Whereas  a probated will is an announcement of an orderly succession of proprietary ownership to the world, and wills are available to anyone. Not everyone is comfortable with making that announcement and creating a record that could last centuries or even millennia. On the other hand, trusts can…

We are currently living through the Information Age, harvesting, selling, and protecting information has become a significant undertaking both by private individuals and corporations, as well as by the government. One person who has huge amounts of information about you without your explicit consent is the reader of your Individual Master File. The Individual Master…

Last autumn’s elections will increase the sales and use tax by an average of 0.78 percentage points for over 1.75 million people across over thirty municipalities, termed “districts” by the California Department of Tax and Fee Administration (CDTFA) which administers the sales and use tax. These changes will become effective on April 1, 2023. One…

The foreign tax credit (“FTC”) is the primary vehicle for escaping double taxation often due on international income. It provides a credit for the taxes levied by foreign jurisdictions under a myriad of limitations. Several more limitations were added at the beginning of 2022 through regulations imposing a weight somewhat lightened by even more recent proposed regulations. The…