IRS Nonacquiesces in Wandry

The Tax Court had held in the Wandry case (TC Memo 2012-88) that a fixed-dollar gift of an LLC interest (as opposed to a fixed percentage) was valid for gift tax purposes. This would be very helpful for taxpayers making gifts of hard to value assets. The IRS issued a notice that it will not acquiesce in this decision. AOD appearing at 2012-46 IRB. Some commentators believe this means that Treasury may issue regulations against fixed-dollar gifts, or that they have a better case in the pipeline.

February Fraud Alert from Denver DA

The Denver DA’s office sends out a "Fraud Alert" each month. This month, they caution that "The most common tax fraud this time of year is committed by perpetrators who use stolen identities to file tax returns in the hopes of collecting tax refunds. However, not all identity thieves have financial motives in mind. Stolen Social Security numbers are also used by perpetrators or others with questionable backgrounds to get a job." They note that perpetrators will send e-mails or call saying they are from the IRS and asking for Social Security numbers and other information. The IRS never contacts taxpayers in this way. The alert also tells taxpayers to be sure to use a password to protect your tax return electronic file, and then save it to a disk and delete it from your hard drive. To see other Fraud Alerts, go to Fraud Alerts.