Losing Deductions By Not Filing A Tax Return

I have become increasingly reluctant to accept a nonfiler as a client. That said, a partner somehow sneaks one or two a year into Command Center, and I – reluctant or not – become involved. It would not be so bad if it was just a matter of catching-up with the paperwork, but often one needs to stave off Collections, establish a payment plan, request penalty abatement (done after the taxes are paid, meaning I have to monitor it in my spare time) and on-and-on.

Try doing this during IRSCOVID202020212022. It is zero fun.

I am looking at a nonfiler that took a self-inflicted wound.

Let’s talk about Shawn Salter.

Salter was a loss prevention manager over 10 Home Depot stores in Arizona.  He worked from home but drove regularly to his stores. Home Depot offered to reimburse his mileage, but he turned it down. He thought that claiming the mileage on his return would give him a bigger refund.

COMMENT: Well, yes, as he was paying out-of-pocket for gasoline and wear-and-tear on his car. Clearly he is not a Warren Buffet successor.

Salter got laid off in 2013.

He took money out of his IRA to get through, but that is not the point of our discussion today.

He needed to file a 2013 return so he could get that tax refund, especially since he turned down the opportunity to be reimbursed.

What did he not do?

He did not file a 2013 return.

Eventually the IRS figured it out and asked for a tax return.

Salter blew it off.

The IRS prepared a “substitute for return.” You do not want the IRS to do this, by the way. The IRS will file you as single with no dependents (whether you are or not), include all your gross income and do its very best to not spot you any deductions. It is intentionally designed to maximize your tax liability.

The IRS wanted over $6 grand in tax, with all the assorted interest and penalty toppings.

Now Salter cared.

He told the IRS that he had used H&R Block software to file his return.

The IRS clarified that it had no 2013 tax return, either from H&R Block or from anyone else. Send us a copy, they said.

He did not have a copy to send. He did not have certified mail receipts or record of electronic filing. He had nothing.

Hard to persuade anyone with nothing.

Here is the Court:

We find that the petitioner did not file a return for 2013, ...”

This created a problem.

Salter wanted to claim that mileage, meaning that he needed to itemize his deductions.

OK.

Not OK. There is a tax issue.

Which is …?

Did you know that itemizing your deductions is considered a tax election?

And …?

You have to file a tax return to make the election.

Easy, you say, Salter should prepare and file a 2013 return claiming itemized deductions. Doing so is the election.

Too late. That window closed when the IRS prepared the substitute for return. The substitute is considered a return, and it did not itemize. Remember how a substitute works: income is reported at gross; deductions are grudgingly given, if given at all. 

No mileage. No deduction. No refund. Tax due.

As we said: self-inflicted wound.

Our case this time was Salter v Commissioner, T.C. Memo 2022-29.

Can $2 Million Be An Honest Mistake?

 

It is a good idea to look over your tax return before hitting the “Send” button.

Why? Because things happen. Some prep software approximates a black box. It asks questions, you provide numbers and together they go someplace hidden from the eyes of man. Granted, most times the result is just fine. But there are those times ….

Let’s talk about Candice and Randall Busch.

They were preparing their 2017 tax return using a popular tax software, which shall remain nameless. They reached the point where the software wanted mortgage interest. Easy enough. They entered “21,201.25.”

So?

The software did not accept pennies.

This means that 21,201.25 went in as 2,120,125.

That, folks, is a lot of mortgage interest.

BTW one cannot deduct that much mortgage interest on a principal residence. Why? The mortgage interest deduction had been capped for many years as interest paid on the first $1 million of indebtedness. Let’s say someone paid $62,000 on $2 million of principal residence debt. The tax preparer should have caught this and limited the deduction as follows:

         62,000 * 1,000,000/2,000,000 = 32,000

The $1,000,000 cap was further reduced to $750,000 in 2017.

The tax Code has no intention of allowing an unlimited deduction for this type of interest.

Is it ever possible to get past the $1,000,000 (or $750,000) limitation? Well, yes, and it happens all the time. Borrow money on commercial real estate (say a strip mall) and there is no limitation. Borrow money on residential real estate - as long as it is not a principal residence - and there is no limitation. An example would be an apartment complex.  The limitation we are discussing is personal and involves debt on your house.

Back to the Busch’s.

They sound like average folk.

That mistake made their tax refund go through the roof.

They liked that answer.

They sent in the return.

The IRS flagged the return, which was not hard to do when the interest deduction was larger than the allowed debt for purposes of calculating the deduction itself.

The IRS wanted the excess refund back.

The Busch’s would do that.     

Then the IRS also wanted a heavy penalty (the accuracy-related penalty, for the home gamers).

The Busch’s said they wouldn’t do that. An exception to the accuracy-related penalty is reasonable cause, and they had reasonable cause all day long and three times on the weekend.

And what was that reasonable cause, asked the IRS.

It was an “honest mistake,” they replied.

Off to Tax Court they went.

The Busch’s represented themselves, the lingo for which is “pro se.”

The Court acknowledged that mistakes happen. One can get distracted and enter a wrong number, one can transpose, one can get surprised by what a software might do.

But that is not the mistake here.

The mistake here was failing to review the return before sending.

The biggest number on the return – literally – was that interest deduction. It hung over the form like a Big Texan 72-ounce steak on a normal-sized dinner plate.

Here is the Court:

A careful review of the return after it was prepared would most certainly have caught the error; actually, even as little as a quick glance at the return probably would have done so.”

The Busch’s got stuck with the penalty.

IRS Wants Near $9 Million Penalty From A Holocaust Survivor

 

I’ll tell you what caught my eye:

This is a tax case in which the Government alleges that Defendant Walter Schik, a Holocaust survivor, failed to file a foreign bank account reporting form with the Internal Revenue Service …, which now seeks by this action to collect an almost nine-million-dollar civil penalty assessed against him for that failure.”

There are so many things wrong with that sentence.

Let’s talk about Form TD F 90-22.1, also known as the FBAR (“Eff- Bar”). The form existed before I took my first course in accounting years ago, but it has gathered steam and interest when Treasury started to chase overseas bank accounts during the aughts. If one has a foreign account, or has authority over a foreign account, which exceeds $10,000 during the taxable year, one is required to disclose on one’s individual income tax return (on Schedule B) and file Form TD F 9-22.1 with the Treasury.

Up to this point, it is just another form to file. We are drowning in forms, so what is the big deal?

The deal is the penalties for not filing the form. Let’s separate not filing the form because you did not know you had to file from knowing you had to file but deciding not to. That second one is considered “willful” (which makes sense) and can cost you a penalty from $100,000 to 50% of the account balance at the time of violation.

This is VERY expensive money.

The IRS assessed a penalty of almost $9 million against Schik for failure to file an FBAR.

Some background:

·      Mr Schik is a Holocaust survivor.

·      His education was cut short by, how shall we say this …, being in a concentration camp.

·      After the war, he immigrated to the U.S. and became a citizen.

·      After becoming a citizen, he opened a Swiss bank account where he deposited monies recovered from relatives who were slaughtered during the Holocaust.

·      He left the monies in Switzerland as he was fearful that another Holocaust-like event could occur.

·      Schik did not touch or manage the money. That was done by his son and a Swiss money manager.

·      Schik did talk with the money manager occasionally, though.

·      By 2017 one of those Swiss accounts had over $15 million.

·      His accountant never asked Schik if he had overseas bank accounts or explained the recently heightened IRS interest in the area.

I am sympathetic with the accountant. What are the odds of having a client who is a Holocaust survivor and having over $15 million in a Swiss bank account? One could go a career. I have.

The year at issue is 2007. There is a question on the individual tax return whether one has an interest or signature authority over a foreign bank account. Schik’s accountant answered it “No.” Schik did not correct his accountant. More fairly, Schik did not even notice the question.

Wouldn’t you know that Schik’s Swiss money manager got pulled into the UBS investigation?

UBS entered into a deferred prosecution arrangement with the United States. It however had to provide identities of U.S. citizens and residents who were customers of the bank.

At which point Schik submitted a voluntary disclosure to the IRS.

Which the IRS denied.

Without an alternative, Schik submitted a late FBAR.

The IRS then slapped the 50% penalty we are talking about.

Which brings us up to speed.

The penalty requires one’s behavior to be “willful.” Not surprisingly, the word has specific meaning under the law, and the Court evaluated whether Schik’s behavior was willful.

Treasury argued that “willful” means “objectively reckless.”

Got it. Ignoring an issue to an extreme degree is the same as knowing and not caring.

Schik argued that willful means “intentional disregard.”

The difference?

Schik argued that the underlying law was opaque, long-ignored and now quickly – if somewhat capriciously – conscripted into action. He no more intentionally disregarded his tax reporting obligations than he intentionally disregarded the newest developments in cosmological galaxy formation. There was no conspiracy by hundred-year-old Holocaust survivors: he just didn’t know.

And such is tax law. Nine million dollars hangs on the meaning of a word.

The Court noted that other courts – relying on records similar to those available to it - have found willfulness.

Not good for Schik. 

However, the Court was concerned about the many countervailing factors:

·      Schik was nearly 100 years old.

·      Schik had minimal formal education.

·      Schik did not manage the money.

·      Schik did not prepare his own tax returns.

·      Schik had no idea about a disclosure requirement.

·      Schik’s accountant did not explain the disclosure requirement.

·      The question answered “No” was pre-filled by the accountant’s software and did not represent any assertion made by Schik.

The Court denied the IRS summary judgement, noting there was a substantial question of fact.

I agree.

Who will review and clarify the facts?

“The Court believes that the Parties in this case would benefit from mediation. By separate order the Court will refer the Parties to the Southern District of New York’s Mediation Program. … the assigned District Judge … may determine that a case is appropriate for mediation and may order that case to mediation, with or without the consent of the parties.”

Methinks the IRS should just have allowed the voluntary disclosure.  

Was the IRS encouraging compliance, promoting education and providing a ramp to enter/reenter the tax system? Or is this something else, something with the purpose of terrifying the next person?

Our case this time was United States of America v Walter Schik, 20-cv-02211 (MKV)

Are Minimum Required Distribution Rules Changing Again?

I wonder what is going on at the IRS when it comes to IRA minimum required distributions.

You may recall that prior law allowed for something called a “stretch” IRA.  The idea was simple, but planners and advisors pushed on it so long and so hard that Congress changed the law.

An IRA (set aside Roth IRAs for this discussion) must start distributing at some point in time. The tax Code tells you the minimum you must distribute. If you want more, well, that is up to you and the tax Code has nothing further to say.  The minimum distribution uses actuarial life expectancies in its calculation. Here is an example:

                   Age of IRA Owner            Life Expectancy

                            72                                    27.4

                            73                                    26.5

                            74                                    25.5

                            75                                    24.6                                        

Let’s say that you are 75 years old, and you have a million dollars in your IRA. Your minimum required distribution (MRD) would be:

                  $1,000,000 divided by 24.6 = $40,650

There are all kinds of ancillary rules, but let’s stay with the big picture. You have to take out at least $40,650 from your IRA.

President Trump signed the SECURE Act in late 2019 and upset the apple cart. The new law changed the minimum distribution rules for everyone, except for special types of beneficiaries (such as a surviving spouse or a disabled person).

How did the rules change?

Everybody other than the specials has to empty the IRA in or by the 10^th year following the death.

OK.

Practitioners and advisors presumed that the 10-year rule meant that one could skip MRDs for years 1 through 9 and then drain the account in year 10. It might not be the most tax-efficient thing to do, but one could.

The IRS has a publication (Publication 590-B) that addresses IRA distributions. In March, 2021 it included an example of the new 10-year rule. The example had the beneficiary pulling MRDs in years 1 through 9 (just like before) and emptying the account in year 10.

Whoa! exclaimed the planners and advisors. It appeared that the IRS went a different direction than they expected. There was confusion, tension and likely some anger.

The IRS realized the firestorm it had created and revised Publication 590-B in May with a new example. Here is what it said:

For example, if the owner dies in 2020, the beneficiary would have to fully distribute the plan by December 31, 2030. The beneficiary is allowed, but not required, to take distributions prior to that date.”

The IRS, planners and advisors were back in accord.

Now I am skimming the new Proposed Regulations. Looks like the IRS is changing the rules again.

The Regs require one to separate the beneficiaries as before into two classes: those exempt from the 10-year rule (the surviving spouse, disabled individuals and so forth) and those subject to the 10-year rule.

Add a new step: for the subject-to group and divide them further by whether the deceased had started taking MRDs prior to death. If the decedent had, then there is one answer. If the decedent had not, then there is a different answer.

Let’s use an example to walk through this.

Clark (age 74) and Lois (age 69) are killed in an accident. Their only child (Jon) inherits their IRA accounts.

Jon is not a disabled individual or any of the other exceptions, so he will be subject to the 10-year rule.

One parent (Clark) was old enough to have started MRDs.

The other parent (Lois) was not old enough to have started MRDs.

Jon is going to see the effect of the proposed new rules.

Since Lois had not started MRDs, Jon can wait until the 10^th year before withdrawing any money. There is no need for MRDS because Lois herself had not started MRDs.

OK.

However, Clark had started MRDs. This means that Jon must take MRDs beginning the year following Clark’s death (the same rule as before the SECURE Act). The calculation is also the same as the old stretch IRA: Jon can use his life expectancy to slow down the required distributions – well, until year 10, of course.

Jon gets two layers of rules for Clark’s IRA:

·      He has to take MRDs every year, and

·      He has to empty the account on or by the 10^th year following death

There is a part of me that gets it: there is some underlying rhyme or reason to the proposed rules.

However, arbitrarily changing rules that affect literally millions of people is not effective tax administration.

Perhaps there is something technical in the statute or Code that mandates this result. As a tax practitioner in mid-March, this is not my time to investigate the issue.  

The IRS is accepting comments on the proposed Regulations until May 25.

I suspect they will hear some.

Taxing Foreign Investment In U.S. Real Estate

One of the Ps buzzed me about a dividend item on a year-end brokers’ statement.

P:      “What is a Section 897 gain?”

CTG: It has to do with the sale of real estate. It is extremely unlikely to affect any of our clients.

P:      Why haven’t I ever seen this before?

CTG: Because this is new tax reporting.

We are talking about something called the Foreign Investment in Real Property Tax Act, abbreviated FIRPTA and pronounced FERP-TUH. This thing has been around for decades, and it has nothing to do with most of us. The reporting, however, is new. To power it, you need a nonresident alien – that is, someone who is not a U.S. citizen or resident alien (think green card) – and who owns U.S. real estate. FIRPTA rears its head when that person sells said real estate.

This is specialized stuff.

We had several nonresident alien clients until we decided to exit that area of practice. The rules have reached the point of absurdity – even for a tax practitioner – and the penalties can be brutal. There is an encroaching, if unspoken, presumption in tax law that international assets or activities mean that one is gaming the system. Miss something – a form, a schedule, an extension, an election - and face a $10,000 penalty. The IRS sends this penalty notice automatically; they do not even pretend to have an employee review anything before mailing. The practitioner is the first live person in the chain, He/she now must persuade the IRS of reasonable cause for whatever happened, and that a penalty is not appropriate. The IRS looks at the file - for the first time, mind you - says “No” and demands $10,000.

And that is how a practitioner gets barreled into a time-destroying gyre of appealing the penalty, getting rejected, requesting reconsideration, getting rejected again and likely winding up in Tax Court. Combine that with the bureaucratic rigor mortis of IRSCOVID202020212022, and one can understand withdrawing from that line of work.

Back to Section 897.

The IRS wants its vig at the closing table. The general withholding is 15% of selling price, although there is a way to reduce it to 10% (or even to zero, in special circumstances). You do not want to blow this off, unless you want to assume substitute liability for sending money to the IRS.

The 15% is a deposit. The IRS is hopeful that whoever sold the real estate will file a nonresident U.S. income tax return, report the sale and settle up on taxes. If not, well the IRS keeps the deposit.

You may wonder how this wound up on a year-end brokers’ tax statement. If someone sells real estate, the matter is confined to the seller, buyer and title company, right? Not quite. The real estate might be in a mutual fund, or more likely a REIT. While you are a U.S. citizen, the mutual fund or REIT does not know whether its shareholders are U.S. citizens or resident aliens. It therefore reports tax information using the widest possible net, just in case.

Overcontributing To Your 401(k)

 

One of the accountants had a question for me:

A:               I added up the W-2s, but the wages per the software does not agree to my number.

CTG:          Is your number lower?

A:               Yes.

Let’s talk about 401(k)s. More specifically, let’s talk about 401(k)s when one changes jobs during the year. It can be an issue if one is making decent bank.

You are under age 50. How much can you defer in a 401(k)?

For 2021 you can defer $19,500. The limit increased to $20,500 for 2022.

You change jobs during 2021. Say you contributed $14,000 at your first job. The second job doesn’t know how much you contributed at first job. You contribute $12,000 at your second job.

Is there a tax problem?

First, congrats. You are making good money or are a serious saver. It could be both, I suppose.

But, yes, there is a tax problem.

The universe of retirement plans is divided into two broad categories:

·      Defined benefit

·      Defined contribution

Defined benefit are also known as pension plans. Realistically, these plans are becoming extinct outside of a union setting, with the government counting as union.

Defined contribution plans are more commonly represented by 401(k)s, 403(b)s, SIMPLES and so forth. Their common feature is that some – maybe most – of the dollars involved are the employee’s own dollars.

Being tax creatures, you know that both categories have limits. The defined benefit will have a benefit limit (the math can be crazy). The defined contribution will have a contribution limit.

And that contribution limit is $19,500 in 2021 for someone under age 50.

COMMENT: If you google “defined contribution 2021” and come back with $58,000, you may wonder about the difference between the two numbers. The $58,000 includes the employer contribution. Our $19,500 is just the employee contribution. This difference is one of the reasons that solo 401(k)s work as well as they do: they max-out the employer contribution – assuming that the income is there to power the thing, of course.  

Let’s go back to our example. You deferred $26,000 for 2021.

Are you over the limit?

Yep.

If you add your two W-2s together, is the sum your correct taxable wages for 2021?

Nope.

Why not?

Because a 401(k) contribution lowers your (income) taxable wages. You went $6,500 over the limit. Your taxable wages are $6,500 lower than they should be.

 What do you do?

There are two general courses of action:

(1)  Contact one of the employers (probably the second one) explain the issue and request that the W-2 be amended by the deadline date for filing your return – that is, April 15. Rest assured, you have just drawn the wrath of someone in the accounting or payroll department, but you have only so many options. 

BTW the earnings on the excess contributions are also taxable to you. Say that you earned 1% on the excess. That $65 will be taxable to you, but it will be taxable the following year. 

In summary,

§  Your 2021 W-2 income goes up by $6,500

§  You will report the $65 earnings on the excess contribution in 2022.

    It is a mess, but the second option is worse.

(2)  You do not contact one of the employers, or you contact them too late for them to react by April 15.

Your 2021 W-2s show excessive 401(k) deferral.

Your tax preparer will probably catch this and increase your taxable W-2 totals by $6,500. This is what created the accountant’s question at the beginning of this post.

Oh well, you say. You are back to the same place as option one. No harm, no foul – right?

Not quite. 

First, your employer may not be too happy if the issue is later discovered. This is an operational plan issue, and there can be penalties for operational plan issues. 

Second, once you go past the time allowed for correction, the money is stuck in the plan until you are allowed take a distribution (or until the employer learns of the issue and corrects the plan on its own power). 

Say you never tell them. Let’s not burn this bridge, right? 

Problem. Take a look at this bad boy: 

                 Section 402(g)(6)  Coordination with section 72 .

For purposes of applying section 72 , any amount includible in gross income for any taxable year under this subsection but which is not distributed from the plan during such taxable year shall not be treated as investment in the contract.

What does this assemblage of mostly unintelligible words mean?    

It means that you will be taxed again when the 401(k) finally distributes the excess contribution to you. 

Yep, you will be taxed twice on the same income. 

That $6,500 got expensive. 

Upon reflection, there really is no option 2. You have to tell your employer and have them correct the W-2.      

Reporting Income Below A 1099 Filing Requirement

 

I am looking at a case that reminded me of a very recent telephone call with a client.

Let’s talk about the client first.

It is tax season here at Galactic Command as I type this. The client sent me the paperwork for the joint return.  She included a note that she had withdrawn from her 401(k) but had not received a 1099.

“Do I have to report it, then?” she asked.

This is a teaching moment: “yes.” The answer is “yes.”

One is required to report his/her income fully and accurately, irrespective of whether one receives a 1099 or other information reporting. I, as a tax CPA, might not even be able to sign as preparer, depending upon the size and consequence of the numbers.

I had her contact the investment company and request a duplicate tax form. It was for the best, as the company had withheld taxes on the distribution.

Let’s look next at the Legoski case.

During 2017 John Legoski (John) had a job and a side gig. His gig was buying stuff online and selling said stuff via drop shipments. He was paid via Amazon Payments. He in turn paid for stuff using PayPal. He received a 1099 from Amazon Payments for $29,501.

Which he did not report.

The IRS caught this, of course, because that is what computerized matching does. That notice does not even go past human eyes before the IRS mails it.

His argument: he thought that his gross receipts did not meet the minimum reporting threshold for third-party payments.

COMMENT: For 2017, a third-party settlement company was required to issue John a 1099-K if (1) gross payments to John exceeded $20,000 and (2) there were more than 200 transactions.

I presume that John had less than 200 transactions, as he certainly was paid more than $20 grand. But it doesn’t matter, as he is required to report all his income whether or not he received a 1099.

The IRS wanted taxes and penalties of $9,251 on the $29,501.

Seems steep, don’t you think?

That is because the IRS did not spot John any cost of goods sold.

Push back, John. Send the IRS your PayPal account activity. That is where you bought everything. It may not be classroom accounting, but it is something.

John … did not do this. He did not provide any documentation to the IRS, to the Court, to anybody.

John, John, … but why?

Bam! The Court disallowed him a cost of goods sold deduction.

Next were the penalties on the unreported income (which was not reduced for a cost of goods deduction).

The Court wanted John to show reasonable cause for filing his tax return the way he did.

John, listen to me: you are not an accountant. You are barely a novice gig worker. You didn’t know. This was undecipherable tax law to you. You botched, but you did not do so on purpose.

However, his failure to provide a PayPal activity statement where he paid for EVERYTHING HE BOUGHT FOR RESALE did not put the Court in a forgiving mood.

The Court decided he was responsible for penalties, too.

And I would bet five dollars and a box of Girl Scout Thin Mints that John made little to no money from his gig – heck, he probably lost money - but this escapade cost him over $9 grand.

Let me check. Yep, John appeared before the Court pro se. As we have discussed before, this does not necessarily mean that he showed up in Court without professional representation. From the way it turned out, though, I feel pretty confident that he winged it.

COMMENT: For 2022 the 1099 reporting for this situation has changed. The $20,000/200 transactions requirement is gone. The new law requires a 1099 for payments over $600. Yep, you read that right.

Our case this time was Legoski v Commissioner, T.C. Summary 2021-15.