The long-awaited energy tax incentives act passed recently by Congress offers a wide range of tax credits that focus on conservation, alternative energy, the energy infrastructure and domestic energy production. While much of the act is aimed at the energy industry, some elements could benefit taxpayers in home building and other industries that can use “green” technologies, particularly motor vehicles. There are also some provisions of the act that can benefit individual taxpayers as well. CCH’s tax editors have prepared a Briefing on this legislation, as well as a look at other tax bills on Congress’s Fall agenda.

 

 

Despite recent court decisions, including one at the Supreme Court level, the use of a plain meaning argument in fending off an IRS challenge to the tax treatment of a financial transaction should be a secondary argument, according to attorney David B. Blair in a recent issue of CCH’s Journal of Taxation of Financial Products. He writes that such arguments are finding increasing judicial favor in tax cases, but it is far better to be able to show clear non-tax benefits for transactions and a tax result that is consistent with both the text and the underlying policies of the IRC and regulations. Blair discusses the impact of the plain meaning doctrine in recent cases and how it fits with the seemingly incompatible economic substance doctrine—which is still in vogue with the IRS and many lower courts. Blair stresses that these two doctrines will likely live side-by-side for some time as courts decide which approach should be used in individual cases. Given that, he stresses that being able to win out on economic substance will give a taxpayer a much higher chance of prevailing against an IRS challenge

 

 

 

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When the IRS comes to a client with a Notice of Deficiency or a Notice of Determination, most tax practitioners refer that client on to a tax attorney to handle the case in Tax Court. While that may be sound practice in most instances, some cases could be handled just as well by a non-lawyer, according to a former 26-year employee of the IRS who now serves an a non-attorney tax advisor in a Sacramento, Calif., law firm. David M. Fogel, a CPA and EA, outlines exactly what non-lawyers can and can’t do in practice before the U.S. Tax Court in a recent article in the Journal of Tax Practice and Procedure. He explains how some cases, particularly those involving smaller dollar amounts, can be easily—and affordably—handled by a CPA or EA who knows the proper procedures to follow.

 

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We all know someone who has lived well into their 90s or even reached that once unheard of 100-year mark. Healthcare advances have changed some of the most practical considerations of careful estate planning practice to include long-term care solutions. It is more likely than ever that estate planning clients will eventually need to have some type of long-term care and the best time to think about providing for such care, of course, is long before it is needed. That makes insurance an option that is both possible and affordable, notes estate planning expert Ellen V. Springer in a recent issue of CCH’s Journal of Practical Estate Planning. Long-term care insurance and planning can protect the assets of a couple when one spouse has to have expensive nursing home care and it can preserve the estates clients have worked hard to build for their heirs. Springer goes through the process of looking over all of the possible long-term care options and coming up with the right answers based on individual client needs.