In this podcast we look at highlights of three of the five bills affecting taxation that Congress passed prior to leaving town, specifically the Tax Increase Prevention Act of 2007, Mortgage Forgiveness Debt Relief Act of 2007 and Tax Technical Corrections Act of 2007, all three of which have provisions that should be of interest to many of your clients. 

The written materials for the podcast can be downloaded from http://www.edzollars.com/2007-12-29_New_Laws.pdf .

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

In a recent Tax Court decision on the home sale exclusion under Section 121, the IRS and the taxpayers split the decision--the IRS lost in its attempt to claim the taxpayer did not use the property in question as his principal residence, but the taxpayer lost a portion of the deduction because a portion of the property was titled in the name of a partnership--and the court did not buy the taxpayer's theories that either the partnership was never formed or that the property had been distributed.  The case is Farah v. Commissioner, T.C. Memo 2007-369.

The materials for the podcast can be downloaded from http://www.edzollars.com/2007-12-26_Section_121.pdf .

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

The IRS has issued Notice 2008-1 that details how an S corporation shareholder can qualify for the self-employed health insurance deduction under §162(l) even if the policy is in the name of the shareholder. The notice is at odds with the implication contained in IRS Headliner 163 issued in May of 2006 that seemed to many to strongly suggest that personal ownership of the policy was fatal to the deduction.

We had previously discussed why, perhaps, that wasn't the case in a podcast back in June of 2006 that suggested listeners look at Revenue Ruling 61-146 and consider whether a similar program would not solve the problem the Headliner pointed out with individual policies. What the IRS has now done is, effectively, adopted that solution with official blessing.

The materials can be downloaded from http://www.edzollars.com/2007-12-26_S_Corporation.pdf.

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

After a not so short hiatus, the Tax Update podcast is again posted, this time looking at IRS Revenue Ruling 2008-5 that deals with issue of a taxpayer selling securities at a loss in a taxable account and then purchasing identical securities in a regular or Roth IRA.  The issue is one that practitioners have discussed for years, but which the IRS just now is getting around to issuing a formal ruling on.

The written materials for the podcast can be downloaded at http://www.edzollars.com/2007-12-21_IRA_Issue.pdf .

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