Tax relief for flood victims

“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times.”  When Dickens wrote his Tale of Two Cities, he wrote of more than times in the past, but for times we even share today.  My neighbors, friends and family in Tennessee learned this only too well earlier this month, when a “thousand year flood” ripped through homes, business and lives with an unrelenting force. ...

TAO – Offer in compromise – Pennies on the dollar?

IRS enforcement efforts are subject to swings between more and less aggressiveness based on the national economy, revenue needs and pure politics.  In the Eighties and again in the late Nineties, Congress was moved by public pressure (including a certain 60 Minutes broadcast in which I was interviewed) to enact The Taxpayers’ Bill of Rights I and II.  As a result, a longstanding but...

The Truth Shall Set You Free

It’s true.  Just like the Bible says. A generation or two ago, the Soviet Union dominated a half billion people against their will.  The government controlled all major information outlets, broadcast and press.  So when President Reagan described the USSR as an “evil empire” there was no evidence of such a pronouncement within the Soviet bloc.  Except for one little thing.  The people...