Given that the IRS and courts had a short week, we look back this week at a ruling from a few weeks back, as well as a related ruling from a year ago, that deal with the accountable plan rules, and how the IRS interprets the options for implementing those rules.  We look at Revenue Rulings 2006-56 and 2005-52.

The materials can be downloaded at http://edzollars.com/2006-11-25_Accountable_Plan_Per_Diem.pdf .

The podcast is sponsored by Leimberg Information Services, on the web at http://www.leimbergservices.com .

The IRS has released a simplified method that businesses can elect to use to compute the amount of their refund for the federal long distance excise tax that the IRS finally agreed the law did not allow them to collect.  The simplified method is elective, and uses April and September 2006 phone invoices to compute a percentage that is applied to all telephone expense throughout the relevant period.

Materials, including the IRS notice and questions and answers, can be downloaded at http://edzollars.com/2006-11-18_Telephone_Tax_Refund.pdf .

The podcast was recorded this week at the Founders Inn in Virginia Beach, Virginia where I spoke at the Virginia Accounting and Auditing Conference.

The podcast is sponsored by Leimberg Information Services, located on the web at http://www.leimbergservices.com .

83(b) elections were all the rage, especially for those with stock options during the dot com bubble--and now many of those individuals regret the election.  This week the Tax Court considered the case of Anthony Kadillak (Kadillak v. Commissioner, 127 TC No. 13) who sought to escape the consequences of his 83(b) election and subsequent forfeiture of a portion of the shares through various means.

The materials can be downloaded at http://edzollars.com/2006-11-11_83b_and_AMT.pdf .

I'm going to Ohio this week, speaking in Dublin, Ohio just outside of Columbus on Monday, and Canton on Tuesday.  After that, I will do a technology update at the Virginia Beach version of the Virginia Accounting & Auditing Conference on Thursday.

The podcast is sponsored by Leimberg Information Services, located at http://www.leimbergservices.com .

The podcast this week deals with the case of Estate of Landers, TC Memo 2006-230, where an estate's co-administrator attempted to seek a finding that there was reasonable cause for late filing based upon his reliance upon his (now deceased) co-administrator, who was a tax professional, and who suffered a broken hip two months before the extended due date of the estate tax return.

The case offers a look at what does and doesn't constitute reasonable cause for late filing, as well as the issue of whether a nonprofessional can be excused for not being aware of the due date of a return if he claims he relied upon a professional to inform him of the due date.

The materials are located at http://edzollars.com/2006-11-01_Late_Filing_Tax_Professional.pdf .

The podcast is sponsored by Leimberg Information Services, located at http://www.leimbergservices.com.