The internet is a jungle full of predators, and your credit is their prey. According to the FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center, most cybercrimes committed in 2017 were related to internet shopping. A record 15 million people were victimized by identity fraudsters in 2016. This surge was impelled by a 40% increase in card-not-present fraud. Criminal hackers are becoming alarmingly Read More »
In 1986, two years into Ronald Reagan’s second term, the Democrats regained a Senate majority. David Pryor, a Democratic senator from Arkansas, used his new position as chairman of the Senate Subcommittee on Oversight of the Internal Revenue Service, to launch an attack on what he called the IRS’ “questionable, overreaching activities”. Among the IRS’ “overzealous, heavy-handed, and often illegal Read More »
There’s a new type of investment fund available called “Opportunity Funds” that might benefit two groups of people. Interestingly, these groups are often not well-acquainted with each other: 1) those who have large investment profits and 2) low-income communities. Let’s begin with a few facts that help show why “opportunity funds” might be an idea whose time has come: At Read More »
Investing in cryptocurrency moved mainstream last year and now more people are staring down tax bills from their big gains. The only official IRS guidance about the tax consequences of your adventures in the Jurassic jungle of cryptocurrency trading is from 2014. And that four-year-old publication offers mere guidance, rather than strictly controlling rules. So the best basic advice when Read More »
Changes in the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act have made this strategy even more attractive to real estate investors. Under the new Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, the benefits of combining cost segregation and Section 1031 exchanges have become an even more important tax strategy for real estate investors than ever. With the recently passed TCJA, the rules for Section Read More »
Written by Adam Liptak, Ben Casselman and Julie Creswell Americans have done more and more of their shopping online in recent years, drawn by the promise of low prices, wide selection and buy-from-home convenience. But e-commerce has also had another edge: Many of those sales were, in effect, tax-free. The Supreme Court on Thursday moved to close that loophole, ruling Read More »
We are very pleased to announce that Abhi Parikh has joined our firm as a tax senior manager, after spending nine years at Deloitte Tax. Abhi worked his way up from staff to senior manager in the tax department of his prior firm, and he will continue to utilize his extensive tax experience at SPS, with a particular emphasis in Read More »
After several years of warning taxpayers of fraudulent telephone calls and e-mails from individuals posing as Internal Revenue Service debt collectors, the Internal Revenue Service has been instructed by Congress to contract with private collection agencies to attempt to collect the oldest and largest delinquent taxes. The IRS has selected four companies, CBE Group, ConServe, Performant and Pioneer Credit Recovery Read More »
On February 5, 2017, Steve Sobul, the founder of our firm, passed away after a long illness. Steve founded our firm in August of 1981, bringing with him David Primes, Rick Schenkel, Trish Axt and Chris Morris from an accounting firm that we all worked for. Steve’s decision to set up his own firm offered David, Rick and Chris a Read More »
One of the most frequently asked questions that we get from clients is “ How long do I have to keep all of my records and tax returns?”. The general rule for copies of tax returns is – indefinitely. With the advent of scanning and electronic storage programs, this is slightly less onerous than in previous years. Documentation related to Read More »