Scott Hodge, President’s $1.6 Trillion Tax Bid Lowers GDP, Wages, Living Standards (Tax Policy Blog):

According to this morning’s Washington Post, President Obama’s opening tax offer in his negotiations with Congress over the Fiscal Cliff is the $1.6 trillion in new taxes that were the centerpiece of his FY 2013 budget. Recently, Tax Foundation economists used our Tax and Macroeconomic Model to simulate the long-term economic impact of the President’s proposals – specifically, his proposals to increase taxes on high-income taxpayers [full report here].

In short, the model results indicate that the President’s plan would not only lower GDP and capital formation, but it would reduce after-tax incomes for every household – not just families hit by the higher taxes.  

No, we’ll just sink the rich guy’s end of the boat!

Linda Beale,   Calling all Americans: we face an “austerity crisis” not a fiscal “cliff”; we need a piecemeal solution, not a “grand bargain”.  Austerity?  Really?

Source: Heritage Foundation

If that’s austerity, I’d hate to see what free spending looks like.

We’ll never know, will we?  Would Mitt Romney Have Wanted to Raise Taxes Too? (Ed Krayewski, Reason.com)

Going Concern,   The Fiscal Cliff: As a CPA, People Expect You to Know this Crap

Anthony Nitti,  More On The Fiscal Cliff.

Patrick Temple-West,   Essential reading: Senate Finance chair sees flexibility on Bush tax cuts, and more (Tax Break)

Paul Neiffer,   No AMT Extender May Prevent Farmers From Filing on March 1

Daniel Shaviro,   Obama’s reply to the Republicans on closing income tax “loopholes”

Andrew Mitchel,   I.R.S. Rules that Mexican Fideicomiso is Not a Trust.

This ruling has broad implications for many taxpayers owning real estate in Mexico.  Taxpayers for years have had questions about whether Mexican fideicomisos are trusts.  Some if these taxpayers may have even entered into voluntary disclosure programs and paid significant penalties over the fear that they may be subject to various penalties.  However, if a Mexican fideicomiso is not a trust, then it is not a foreign trust, and no Form 3520 or Form 3520-A would be required to be filed.

Of course, private letter rulings are directed only to the taxpayer requesting it and they may not be used or cited as precedent. However, Rev. Rul. 92-105 is a ruling on which taxpayers can rely and can cite as precedent.  Because there can be huge penalties for failing to file Forms 3520 and 3520-A and because the terms of each fideicomiso will vary, taxpayers should be cautious in determining whether they need to file Forms 3520 and 3520-A for Mexican fideicomisos.   

Let’s hope the IRS provides more guidance so we can know what needs to be filed.

When “thank you” doesn’t cut it:

When a charity receives a gift, it needs to say more than a simple thank you.

The Internal Revenue Service requires that a donor produce a record from the charity to show a gift over $250 had no strings attached. A thank you note can be a good enough record, as long as it includes the magic words: “No goods or services were received in exchange for the contribution.”

Without the magic words, you get no deduction, even with a cancelled check.  Arden Dale explains in the Wall Street Journal (Via Tax Break)

Robert D. Flach,  LOCK IN 2012 MEDICAL DEDUCTIONS.  “… did you know that beginning with tax year 2013 the AGI exclusion increases to 10% for taxpayers under age 65?”

Kay Bell,   Zero capital gains tax rate set to disappear on Jan. 1, 2013

Russ Fox,  FTB Appeals Gillette Decision.  This is a big deal to any multistate business with California taxes.

TaxGrrrl,  Janeane Garofalo Finds Out She’s Been Married… For 20 Years.  Tax hilarity ensues.

IRS, vintage Harley Dealer. The IRS will be auctioning a bunch of antique motorcycles in Elkmont, Alabama on December 1, including this “1946 Flathead”:

Details here.

Isn’t it immoral to send money to the tax man that should be going to the shareholders?  United Kingdom M.P., Margaret Hodge, has an odd moral code.  She thinks that it is immoral to — I don’t know?  Not leave a tip after you compute your tax bill?   She thinks that Starbucks should give the State more of their cash. From Rachel Moran at Reason.com:

In the past three years Starbucks has paid no corporation tax in the UK. Amazon has paid £1.8m, despite bringing a total revenue of £200m in the UK in 2011. Starbucks global chief financial officer Troy Alstead insists the company remains “an extremely high tax payer globally” but, as UK profits have been far from substantial, claims, “respectfully, I can assure you there is no tax avoidance here.” Similarly, Matt Brittin, the head of Google’s northern European operation, defends the company’s practices. “Like any company you play by the rules [and] manage costs efficiently to offer fair value to share holders.”

…

Google‘s Brittin told the committee that “we comply with the law in the U.K.” and “it would be very hard for us to pay more tax here based on the way we are required to structure by the system.” ABC News reports that Hodge responded by saying that the committee was “not accusing you of being illegal, we are accusing you of being immoral.”

If we are going to start talking about morality, let’s start with the morality of forcing people to hand over their money to politicians so they can buy votes with it.  If I ever have an IRS exam where the agent offers no change to the return but says I’m a bad person, my client won’t be too upset.

Not just any Tom, Dick or Terry.  “In a story Nov. 14 about a wind energy tax credit, The Associated Press misidentified Iowa’s governor. He is Terry Branstad, not Tom Branstad.”  (Associated Press story).