Income And Cancellation of Bank Debt

 

There is a basic presumption in the tax Code that any accession to “wealth” is income. It isn’t much of a leap for the tax Code to then say that all income is taxable unless otherwise excluded.

Let’s next look at “wealth.” I propose a working definition as follows:

          Assets (A) = Liabilities (L) + Wealth (W)

A little algebra shows the following:

          A – L = W

Here is spiff on the above: do you have wealth if your liabilities go down?

Let’s look at the Katrina White case.

Katrina started a business in 2015. She took out a business loan for $15,000. She leased space for her business, signing a three-year lease.

The business did not work out. The family lent her $8 grand, but there was no way to save it. She had repaid the bank less than a grand when her remaining debt of $14,433 was discharged. The bank sent her a 1099, of course, as all American life events can apparently be reduced to a 1099.

Katrina never made a payment on the lease. Since rent was late for more than two months, the entire lease became due and payable. That fiasco totaled $21,700.

 She filed her return.

The IRS said she left out income of $14,433.

How?

Let’s go through it.

Katrina said that her wealth (that is, A – L = W) was as follows when the business failed:                 

Real property		28,500
Personal property		3,560
		32,060
Student loans		5,294
Utilities		961
Utilities, estimated		2,500
Furniture loan		1,120
Judgements		8,128
Bank loan		14,433
Lease breach		21,700
Family loan		7,800
		61,936
Net wealth		(29,876)

The IRS wasn’t buying this. They argued that:

·      The estimated utilities were a no go.

·      The family loan wasn’t really a “loan.”

·      While we are at it, the lease breach wasn’t really a loan, as the landlord had no intention of enforcing the debt.

The IRS math was as follows:

Real property		28,500
Personal property		3,560
		32,060
Student loans		5,294
Utilities		961
Furniture loan		1,120
Judgements		8,128
Bank loan		14,433
		29,936
Net wealth		2,124

The matter went to Tax Court.

The Court pointed out the obvious: Katrina signed a valid and binding lease contract. Perhaps the landlord decided that there was nothing there to pursue, but it cannot be argued that she had an enforceable debt.

The Court saw the following:

Real property		28,500
Personal property		3,560
		32,060
Student loans		5,294
Utilities		961
Furniture loan		1,120
Judgements		8,128
Bank loan		14,433
Lease breach		21,700
		51,636
Net wealth		(19,576)

Let’s recap our numbers:

Wealth per Katrina was          ($29,876)

Wealth per the IRS was              $2,124

Wealth per the Court was        ($19,576)

Remember what we said at the beginning, that all income is taxable unless there is an exception?  Well, there is an exception for cancellation of debt. Several, in fact, but today we are concerned with only one: insolvency. The Code says that one does not have income to the extent that one is insolvent.

What is insolvency?

Go back to the formula: A – L = W.

To the extent that “W” is negative, one is insolvent. Another way of saying it is that one has more debts than assets.

So, who showed negative “W”?

Well, Katrina did. So did the Court.

Katrina was insolvent. That was an exception to cancellation of indebtedness income. Katrina did not have taxable income. The IRS lost.

Our case this time was Katrina White v Commissioner, T.C. Memo 2023.-77.

Choose The Lesser Of IRS Grumpiness

 

Let’s talk about the failure to file (FTF) penalty.

Most of us must file an annual income tax return. Unless one is an expat (that is, an American living overseas), the return is due April 15. One can extend the return for six months (that is, until October 15), but the extension is for filing paperwork and not for payment of tax.

How is one supposed to estimate the tax if a significant amount of information is unavailable? Many times, there are estimates or informed guesses; the tax preparer will extend the return using those. Sometimes there are no estimates and no informed guesses; one then does their best. I doubt there isn’t a veteran tax preparer that hasn’t been blindsided by a Schedule K-1.

Let’s continue.

You extend your return. Your K-1 comes in heavier than expected. You owe $5,000 in tax with the return, which you file and pay on October 15.

You will have something called the Failure to Pay (FTP) penalty. The tax nerds know this as the Section 6651(a)(2) penalty. The penalty is as follows:

One-half of 1% for each month or part of a month

To a maximum of 25%

Let’s use our $5,000 example.

I count seven months from April through October (remember: a part of a month counts as a month).

The FTP penalty would be $5,000 times .005 times 7 = $175. It stings, but it is not crushing.

Let’s say the return was filed on October 30.

Has something changed?

Yep.

The IRS is strict about filing deadlines. If the return is extended to October 15, then you have until October 15 to file the return (or at least put it in the mail or submit the electronic file). The 15th is not a suggestion.

What happens if you miss the deadline?

You then filed your return late.

Back to our example. You file the return on October 30. You are just 15 days late. How bad can 15 days be?

It is not intuitive. If you file the return on October 30, you have blown the extension, meaning it is like you never submitted an extension at all. Any penalty calculation starts on April 16.

So what? The FTP penalty is still the same: $5,000 times .005 times 7, right?

The difference is that you have just provoked FTP’s big brother: the Failure to File (FTF) penalty. The FTF is the gym-visiting, MMA-training, creatine supplementing and aggressive sibling to the FTP.

Start with the FTP penalty. Multiply it by 10. The tax nerds know the FTF as the Section 6651(a)(1) penalty. 

Are we saying the FTF penalty is $5,000 times .05 times 7?

Nope, this is tax. There is a loop-the-loop to the FTF calculation.

• The maximum (a)(1) and (a)(2) penalty is 5% per month or part of a month.
• The math stops when you get to 25% in total.

The first loop means that the FTP penalty comes in at .005 and the FTF penalty comes in at .045 per month (or part thereof), as the maximum cannot exceed .050 per month.

The second loop means that the math stops when you get to 25%.

How does a tax pro handle this?

Easy: multiply by 25%.

Let’s go back to the math: $5,000 times 25% = $1,250.

This could have stopped at $175 had you just filed the return on October 15. Nah, you thought to yourself. What’s another couple of weeks?

$1,075, that’s what ($1,250 - $175). That is an expensive two weeks.

So, what got me fired up about this topic?

I saw the following on a tax return this past week:

Go to the bottom where it reads “Interest Penalties.” Go across to “Failure to File.” You will see $3,619.

Someone has just thrown away over three-and-a half grand by dragging their feet on filing. There goes a vacation, new electronics for the house, an IRA contribution - anything better than sending it to the government.

The client has two years of this, BTW.

But CTG, you say, maybe they did not have the money to pay.

The FTF does not mean that one is unable to pay. Granted, in real life the two issues often go together. One rationalizes. I do not have any money; if I delay filing maybe I can also delay IRS dunning letters and collection activity.

Maybe, but practice tells me it is rarely worth it. You have to go over four years with an FTP penalty before you equal just five months of FTF penalty. That money is just too expensive.

Let’s go back to our example.

Say the $5,000 is for tax year 2021. The taxpayer filed the return on or before October 15, 2022 and only now can pay the tax. What have we got?

First, the FTF penalty goes away, as the return was filed on time.

Second, the FTP penalty would be: $5,000 times .005 times 16 = $400. (I am running the penalty from April 2022 to July 2023)

Third, there will be interest, of course, but let’s ignore that for now.

$400 versus $1,075. Seems clear to me.

What can be done if one cannot get numbers together by October 15?

Here’s a thought.

I have a client who owns a successful drywalling company. We extended his return several years ago, and sure enough – closing in on October 15 – he was out-of-town, relaxed and unconcerned about any looming doom. However, I knew that he had a good year, and that any tax due was going to be significant. An FTF penalty on significant tax due was also going to be significant. We decided to file his return with the best numbers available, intending to amend whenever we obtained more precise numbers.

Did I like doing that?

That is a No.

Did he avoid the FTF?

That is a Yes, but he delayed getting us more accurate numbers. That delay created its own problems. Problems which were … completely … avoidable.

What is our takeaway?

File your return. Extend if you must, but file by the extension date. File even if you cannot pay. Yes, the IRS will penalize you. The IRS is grumpy about not getting its money. The IRS is grumpier, however, about not getting the tax return in the first place.

Remember: when given the option, choose the lesser of IRS grumpiness.

A Firefighter Sues

The taxation of legal settlements can be maddening.

The general rule is found in IRC Section 61, which can be colloquially summarized as:

If it breathes, moves, or eats, it is taxable.

Then come the exceptions.

The Code begins with a broad rule, and then you must find and fit into an exception to avoid taxability. A big exception for legal settlements is Section 104(a)(2):

        § 104 Compensation for injuries or sickness.

(a)  In general.

Except in the case of amounts attributable to (and not in excess of) deductions allowed under section 213 (relating to medical, etc., expenses) for any prior taxable year, gross income does not include-

(1)  amounts received under workmen's compensation acts as compensation for personal injuries or sickness;

(2) the amount of any damages (other than punitive damages) received (whether by suit or agreement and whether as lump sums or as periodic payments) on account of personal physical injuries or physical sickness;

What can we learn here?

(1) The Code does not care whether the judge decides or if the parties instead come to an agreement.  

(2)  It does not care if one gets paid in a lump sum or in a series of payments.

(3) It cares very much that the settlement is for something physical – whether injury or sickness.  

What about something nonphysical, such as mental or emotional distress?

Reviewing the history of the Code helps here, as we learn that the Code was changed in 1996 to clarify that mental and emotional injury settlements are excludable from income only if they arose from physical injury or sickness.

This gives the following rule of thumb:

          Physical               =       nontaxable

          Nonphysical        =       taxable      

The attorney must be aware of the above demarcation and wordsmith accordingly if some or all the settlement is for nonphysical damages. 

Can it be done?

Let’s look at the Montes case.

Suzanne Montes wanted to be a firefighter since she was a little girl. She was one of the few women to pass the exam to get into the San Francisco Fire Academy. She then was one of the few women to graduate from the program.

Good for her.

In 2016 she received a sweet assignment to a firehouse in downtown San Francisco.

You may know that firefighters work as a team and in 24-hour shifts. There are about 10 shifts per month, so they spend a LOT of time together. Suzanne was a woman. The remainder of the team were men. Many did not welcome her. First came the disparaging comments, then sabotaging her equipment, then doing - I do not know what specifically and I do not want to know – “disgusting and extremely unsanitary” things to her personal property and effects.

Thanks, guys, for painting men as knuckle-dragging Neanderthals. Way to represent the team.

She complained.

She sued.

She won approximately $380 grand.

Good.

She went to a CPA when it was time to file. The CPA advised that the $380 grand was not taxable.

Even better.

You know the IRS balked, as we are looking at a Tax Court case.

The IRS’s first argument?

Start with the complaint, which claimed sex discrimination and retaliation, including the intentional infliction of emotional distress.

There are no allegations of physical disease or harm to her in the complaint.”

We are not seeing the magic words here: physical injury, physical sickness or micrato raepy sathonich.

Hopefully her attorney salvaged this in the settlement agreement.

Here is the Court:

Our detective work here begins and ends with the settlement agreement.”

Oh oh.

There are no allegations of physical injury …, and indeed, in the summary of the complaint it says, ‘She has lost compensation for which she would have been entitled. She has suffered from emotional distress, embarrassment, and humiliation and her prospects for career advancement have been diminished.’”

No magic words.

Yep, she lost her case. The settlement was taxable.

The Court did hand her a small victory, though. Penalties did not apply because she took a reasonable position based on the advice of a CPA.

Our case this time was Montes v Commissioner, Docket No. 17332-21, June 29, 2023.

 

Failing To Take A Paycheck

I am looking at a case involving numerous issues. The one that caught my attention was imputed wage income from a controlled company in the following amounts:

2004                    $198,740

2005                    $209,200

2006                    $220,210

2007                    $231,800

2008                    $244,000

Imputed wage income means that someone should have received a paycheck but did not.

Perhaps they used the company to pay personal expenses, I think to myself, and the IRS is treating those expenses as additional W-2 income. Then I see that the IRS is also assessing constructive dividends in the following amounts:

2004                    $594,170

2005                    $446,782

2006                    $375,246

2007                    $327,503

2008                    $319,854 

The constructive dividends would be those personal expenses.

What happened here?

Let’s look at the Hacker case.

Barry and Celeste Hacker owned and were the sole shareholders of Blossom Day Care Centers, Inc., an Oklahoma corporation that operated daycare centers throughout Tulsa. Mr. Hacker also worked as an electrician, and the two were also the sole shareholders of another company - Hacker Corp (HC).

The Hackers were Blossom’s only corporate officers. Mrs. Hacker oversaw the workforce and directed the curriculum, for example, and Mr. Hacker was responsible for accounting and finance functions.

Got it. She sounds like the president of the company, and he sounds like the treasurer.

For the years at issue, the Hackers did not take a paycheck from Blossom.

COMMENT: In isolation, this does not have to be fatal.

Rather than pay the Hackers directly, Blossom made payments to HC, which in turn paid wages to the Hackers.

This strikes me as odd. Whereas it is not unusual to select one company out of several (related companies) to be a common paymaster, generally ALL payroll is paid through the paymaster. That is not what happened here. Blossom paid its employees directly, except for Mr. and Mrs. Hacker.

I am trying to put my finger on why I would do this. I see that Blossom is a C corporation (meaning it pays its own tax), whereas HC is an S corporation (meaning its income is included on its shareholders’ tax return). Maybe they were doing FICA arbitrage. Maybe they did not want anyone at Blossom to see how much they made.  Maybe they were misadvised.

Meanwhile, the audit was going south. Here are few issues the IRS identified:

(1)  The Hackers used Blossom credit cards to pay for personal expenses, including jewelry, vacations, and other luxury items. The kids got on board too, although they were not Blossom employees.

(2)  HC paid for vehicles it did not own used by employees it did not have. We saw a Lexus, Hummer, BMW, and Cadillac Escalade.

(3) Blossom hired a CPA in 2007 to prepare tax returns. The Hackers gave him access to the bank statements but failed to provide information about undeposited cash payments received from Blossom parents.

NOTE: Folks, you NEVER want to have “undeposited” business income. This is an indicium of fraud, and you do not want to be in that neighborhood.

(4)  The Hackers also gave the CPA the credit card statements, but they made no effort to identify what was business and what was family and personal. The CPA did what he could, separating the obvious into a “Note Receivable Officer” account. The Hackers – zero surprise at this point in the story - made no effort to repay the “Receivable” to Blossom.  

(5) Blossom paid for a family member’s wedding. Mr. Hacker called it a Blossom-oriented “celebration.”  

(6) In that vein, the various trips to the Bahamas, Europe, Hawaii, Las Vegas, and New Orleans were also business- related, as they allowed the family to “not be distracted” as they pursued the sacred work of Blossom.

There commonly is a certain amount of give and take during an audit. Not every expense may be perfectly documented. A disbursement might be coded to the wrong account. The company may not have charged someone for personal use of a company-owned vehicle. It happens. What you do not want to do, however, is keep piling on. If you do – and I have seen it happen – the IRS will stop believing you.

The IRS stopped believing the Hackers.

Frankly, so did I.

The difference is, the IRS can retaliate.

How?

Easy.

The Hackers were officers of Blossom.

Did you know that all corporate officers are deemed to be employees for payroll tax purposes? The IRS opened a worker classification audit, found them to be statutory employees, and then went looking for compensation.

COMMENT: Well, that big “Note Receivable Officer” is now low hanging fruit, isn’t it?

Whoa, said the Hackers. There is a management agreement. Blossom pays HC and HC pays us.

OK, said the IRS: show us the management agreement.

There was not one, of course.

These are related companies, the Hackers replied. This is not the same as P&G or Alphabet or Tesla. Our arrangements are more informal.

Remember what I said above?

The IRS will stop believing you.

Petitioner has submitted no evidence of a management agreement, either written or oral, with Hacker Corp. Likewise, petitioner has submitted no evidence, written or otherwise, as to a service agreement directing the Hackers to perform substantial services on behalf of Hacker Corp to benefit petitioner, or even a service or employment agreement between the Hackers and Hacker Corp.”

Bam! The IRS imputed wage income to the Hackers.

How bad could it be, you ask. The worst is the difference between what Blossom should have paid and what Hacker Corp actually paid, right?

Here is the Court:

Petitioner’s arguments are misguided in that wages paid by Hacker Corp do not offset reasonable compensation requirements for the services provided by petitioner’s corporate officers to petitioner.”

Can it go farther south?

Respondent also determined that petitioner is liable for employment taxes, penalties under section 6656 for failure to deposit tax, and accuracy-elated penalties under section 6662(a) for negligence.”

How much in penalties are we talking about?

2005                    $17,817

2006                    $18,707

2007                    $19,576

2008                    $20,553

I do not believe this is a case about tax law as much as it is a case about someone pushing the boundary too far. Could the IRS have accepted an informal management agreement and passed on the “statutory employee” thing? Of course, and I suspect that most times out of ten they would. But that is not what we have here. Somebody was walking much too close to the boundary - if not walking on the fence itself - and that somebody got punished.

Our case this time was Blossom Day Care Centers, Inc v Commissioner, T.C. Memo 2021-86.