Category — Taxes

Darling chancellor recently scrapped plans to raise the threshold for inheritance tax(IHT) from £325, 000 to £350, 000 as he looked for to put distinct distance in between Labour and the Conservatives on the issue of wealth and aspiration.

Inheritance tax advice

In 2007, ministers promised to increase the threshold progressively in order that by April 2010 an individual person possibly will leave an estate of £350, 000 in addition to a couple £700, 000 earlier than their beneficiaries faced your tax bill.

This was in response to a Conservative proposal to increase it to £1m, which gave the party’s fortunes a major boost in 2007.

But Alistair Darling mentioned his announcement regarding allowances rising to reflect inflation and anticipated continued property value growth had been prepared “earlier than the financial crisis rocked the international economy”.

“I do not feel that raising this [ IHT ] allowance may be a priority, given the impact of the downturn on the country’s monetary resource. Therefore I have resolved to freeze the individual allowance at £325, 000 for the next year, ” he pronounced.

Just 2. 5% of estates were expected to shell out IHT in 2009- 10, the Treasury said.

The chancellor’s move to freeze the IHT allowance had been expected by a lot of commentators, who feel an attack on the Conservatives’ plans is likely to be central to the Labour party’s general election battle.

recently “

In October it emerged there had been a dramatic tumble in the number of people paying IHT, with officials predicting that 12, 000 households are going to pay up death duties this year – the lowest since data began in the late 1930s.

Figures produced by HM Revenue& Customs demonstrated that the current government had presided over the largest decline in inheritance tax payers.

The number of estates whose worth takes them above the £325, 000 IHT threshold may be anticipated to drop by 25 percent for the duration of this tax year.

Analysts say the cut is a result of falling house values, share market correction, and the 2007 move to let married couples as well as civil partners to transfer unused IHT allowance from a departed spouse to the surviving companion. The tax can be charged at 40% on all resources worth more than £325, 000, however everything left to a spouse or civil partner can be exempt.

Nicola Plant, a partner in the private client team at law company Thomas Eggar, said that with the country still in recession in addition to an election looming it was no big surprise that the chancellor had seen fit to freeze the inheritance tax threshold.

” If building prices continue stable next year then the result of freezing the IHT threshold is going to be minimal. this may prove to be a clever move by Darling, but not an effective fical decision strategy. Labour can be observed to be carrying out the best thing while at the same instance basically upsetting as few potential voters as possible, “she said.

The government also announced more action on closing down schemes which have been used to sidestep IHT via the use of trusts into which properties have been transferred.

Inheritance Tax Planning

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The author of a blog submission I located about an Federal tax quandary seemed to be a woman. She writes:

“I used to owe the IRS about 25,000 dollars, that’s with fees and penalties and with no hope of getting the bill down.”

This person should ponder that we have a right to life and the government can’t tax human rights; or our very right to exist. Most of the community doesn’t know this though, including IRS agents. She continued:

“First we tried monthly payments and that did not work out. Then the IRS levied our pay check from work leaving us with 400 dollars to live on.”

This could have never happened if this woman had known about my IRS Terminator package. She could have studied up on how to demand and win a Collection Due Process Hearing, implemented what she learned, and all tax collection action would have come to a standstill; including the garnishment of her compensation. The writer continued:

“At that time we had seen an ad in the paper for Harrison Grave that will help people get rid of the IRS problems. We went to see them, not knowing that this was not even their official office but a temporary leased office. They told us it would cost total of 2,000 dollars to help us. We were so scared and had no idea what to do, so we accepted and began making payments to them to help us talk to the IRS.”

In Houston, Texas on July 12, 2005, Steven T. Miller, Commissioner TE/GE gave a speech to IRS Tax Forums saying the following:

“I want to salute our partners who have been such a big help at these forums. I want to thank, in alphabetical order, the American Bar Association, the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants, the National Association of Enrolled Agents, the National Association of Tax Professionals, the National Society of Accountants, and the National Society of Tax Professionals.”

Mr. Miller told the CPAs and other tax professionals in attendance that he wanted to assist them  and that the help he was was assuring them of would take the shape of continuing to perfect the IRS’s electronic and information services, modernizing the Service’s computers, and energetically enforcing the law against the unscrupulous few who are a threat the integrity of their/our trade.

This looks like solid confirmation that firms like Harrison Grave are really the IRS’s collaborators in collecting taxes. Maybe this is why no actions were taken by them to stop the levy. The writer continued:

“We submitted the information they needed to began the process and after nine month and still did not hear anything from the Harrison and Grave people we called them asking for an update on what was going on. Needless to say they gave us the run around. I even drove to their office in NC to see them and still no results. They took our 2,000 and did nothing for us. When I called them at that time and told them the IRS is Levy our pay check they said “We have a special team working on your case to stop the Levy’s.” That was all a lie. The IRS levied our second pay check… I knew Harrison Grave was a joke…”

Distressing stories such as this are why citizens in a situation of having overdue taxes, unfiled returns, or returns filed under what is considered by the mainstream as  an odd theory of law such as a Cracking the Code return should plan by preparing in advance how deal with a notice of levy.

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If you bought my IRS Lien Thumper and IRS Terminator packages you would have been able to use the Freedom of Information Act requests (FOIA) to request postal records respecting the Certified mailings of Notices of Lien requisite by 26 USC § 6320 and Final Notices of Intent to Levy required by 26 USC § 6330. Those requests are for a Postal record, that the Internal Revenue Manual says is supposed to be signed by a Postal worker, and is required to be maintained in its hard copy form by the the Service for 10 years. When the IRS  fails to respect administrative process they are required to release, or more technically, withdraw their liens or return levied funds. The IRS Lien Thumper and IRS Terminator packages discuss this strategy in more detail. You can obtain both of those packages together at a significant discount.

If you can prove that the the Service  has failed to followed all of their administrative steps it can be conducive to winning a Collection Due Process Hearing that can suspend collection activities and stave off the implementation of an IRS levy against a bank account or paycheck, as is discussed in more detail in the no obligation videos at www.irsterminator.com.

Persons who have requested Postal record FOIAs from the IRS have  received two different answers at this point: 1) The Disclosure Officer has neglected to provide the record; 2) They have provided a record that looks to have been fabricated. When they provide a record that appears to have been fabricated is when a FOIA to the Postal Service becomes vital to determine the authenticity of the record.

The Postal Service asks that FOIAs be mailed to the custodian of the records. The custodian is the head of the postal facility where the record is stored. In most instances, it will be a postmaster. To me this means that my customers will have to determine where the IRS placed the Certified mail in the mail and their FOIA request will be going to the postmaster at that facility. A search at the US Postal Service’s website to determine the exact location of the facility should prove fruitful. The FOIA Act itself provides that the envelope containing your request declare that it is a “Freedom of Information Act Request” on the outside.

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Has the IRS sent a Final Notice of Levy to you threatening to levy your bank or employer?

There are a lot of people who have received a notice from their work place notifying them that their employer has a Notice of Levy from the IRS instructing them to keep most all of your next paycheck. When this happens it is very upsetting. Right up there is when their financial institution  gets a Notice of Levy from the IRS and notifies them that they intend to deliver the funds in their bank account to them. If the IRS has complied with the law, a Notice of Levy should never be a surprise. 26 USC § 6330 provides in pertinent part:

(a)  Requirement of notice before levy
(1) In general
No levy may be made on any property or right to property of any person unless the Secretary has notified such person in writing of their right to a hearing under this section before such levy is made. Such notice shall be required only once for the taxable period to which the unpaid tax specified in paragraph (3)(A) relates.

26 USC § 6330 provides this respecting the timing and manner of service of the notice:

(a)(2)  Time and method for notice
The notice required under paragraph (1) shall be-
(A) given in person;
(B) left at the dwelling or usual place of business of such person; or
(C) sent by certified or registered mail, return receipt requested, to such person’s last known address;
not less than 30 days before the day of the first levy with respect to the amount of the unpaid tax for the taxable period.

When you accept the aforementioned notices and read them timely, you should see that 26 U.S.C. § 6330(e) provides that as soon as a Collection Due Process Hearing (CDPH) is timely requested “the levy actions which are the subject of the requested hearing…shall be suspended for the period during which such hearing, and appeals therein, are pending…” This provision renders the request for a Collection Due Process Hearing (CDPH) a decidedly effectual method to bring to a halt an IRS levy on a bank account or paycheck.

On an occasion in which a levy was received by an employer but the notice had not been served as required by the above statutes, I have seen the IRS fax a release of levy to an employer in as little as two days subsequent to CDPH hearing request being sent. Now most all employees will never have miss getting their full paycheck. Almost anyone can bring a halt to an IRS levy by timely requesting a CDPH hearing as provided in 26 U.S.C. § 6330(b)(1). I make available the forms to competently request a CDPH hearing in a situation where the statutorily required notice has not been sent at www.irsterminator.com.

There cannot be enough emphasis given that when you receive the notice, you must request the hearing timely. 26 USC § 6330(a)(3) specifies that the information included with the notice the IRS sends you shall include:

“The notice required under paragraph (1) shall include in simple and nontechnical terms-
(B) the right of the person to request a hearing during the 30-day period under paragraph (2);”

However, if the IRS never served you with the notice required by statute, it is not possible to verify when the 30 day period begins and ends. The free videos at www.irsterminator.com explain how to inform the IRS that their failure to serve you with the statutorily required notice makes your request for a hearing timely and entitles you to the suspension of collection activities including the levy at your bank or employer. Plans I have come up with to keep collection activity suspended permanently are discussed on those videos. Keeping collection activity suspended permanently is the challenging part.

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26 U.S.C. § 6330(e) contains a provision that is little celebrated and underutilized by people facing off with an Internal Revenue Service levy of their bank account or paycheck. That subsection provides in pertinent part:

The suspension of collection activities by timely requesting a Collection Due Process Hearing (CDPH) is a highly efficient way to stop an Internal Revenue Service levy on a financial institution such as a bank or credit union or paycheck. I have availed myself of this provision to impede an IRS  levy in as little as two days. I recently put a remark in my shopping cart that even a dancing bear could bring to a halt an IRS (Internal Revenue Service)  levy by a well-timed request for a CDPH hearing as provided in 26 U.S.C. § 6330(b)(1).

However, a dancing bear would not be able to keep IRS (Internal Revenue Service) collection activity put on hold and most likely neither would most of us. In spite of all the delays while appeals are pending; and in spite of being able to retrieve whatever money you had in the bank when the Notice of Levy showed up from the Internal Revenue Service; and despite the fact of receiving full paychecks during those delays; eventually, the end of the line will take place and the  IRS will resume collection activities as they were before the hearing was requested. When this happens the majority of people will be right back where they began; facing a levy by the Internal Revenue Service. It is because of this unsavory actuality that I published nine, no obligation videos, 4-10 minutes long at www.irsterminator.com talking about strategies I have come up with that make keeping Internal Revenue Service collection activities suspended indefinitely a very real prospect.

There are two aspects to winning a CDPH hearing: 1) Taking affirmative strategic action with the purpose of prevailing in the hearing as I talk about in the videos referred to above; 2) Avoiding bringing up issues that would cause you to lose the hearing. Avoiding losing topics is a matter of doing a little study and reviewing what issues have been raised in the past that lost.

Rohner v. U.S., 2003.NOH.0000145 (N.D.Ohio 2003) is the case that I will address in part in this article. Rohner lost his Collection Due Process hearing and appealed to the Federal District Court. I was able to find his case by searching the District Court data base at www.versuslaw.com. I made an hour and forty minute video about how to use Versuslaw to do research and that video is available for you to learn to do online legal research too at www.bearscart.com in the “law study” category.

In the section of the Court’s decision entitled “Factual and Procedural Background” the Court recounted:

“Although Plaintiff submitted Forms 1040 to the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) along with copies of Forms W-2 indicating his wage income for the years 1996 and 1998, he reported no income on the returns and attached statements containing frivolous arguments as to why he was not liable for an income tax for those two years…With regards to the 1998 tax return, the IRS then sent Plaintiff a letter dated May 24, 1999, advising him that a frivolous return penalty of $500 under 26 U.S.C. § 6702 would be assessed against him unless he corrected his position within 30 days…Plaintiff failed to correct the Form 1040 and the IRS assessed § 6702 penalty against him on September 13, 1999, with respect to the 1998 Form 1040…The IRS also accessed Plaintiff a § 6702 penalty on November 13, 2000, with respect to the 1996 Form 1040, because he submitted a Form 1040 for tax year 1996 showing no income with an attached statement containing frivolous arguments on July 21, 2000.”

So, part of what Rohner was trying to do was use the hearing to get out of paying frivolous return penalties. The IRS sent Rohner a Notice of Intent to Levy that informed him of his right to a CDPH hearing and he requested the hearing. After losing in the CDPH hearing, Rohner lost on appeal to the Federal District Court:

1) Rohner’s dispute  that he did not obtain  a notice of deficiency with respect to the § 6702 frivolous return penalty was refused as being baseless since there is no requirement that a notice of deficiency be issued with respect to these penalties. The Court held that deficiency procedures do not apply to the assessment or collection of frivolous tax return penalties.

2) Rohner’s contention that he did not obtain a just hearing because the the Service neglected to comply with his demands for documents was declined by the Court as unfounded. The Court held that Section 6330 did not give permission for production of records or other exploratory demands in association with a CDPH hearing.

Rohner raised other unfruitful topics on appeal which will serve as the basis of a different article. The Court ended up holding that the IRS’s (Internal Revenue Service) administrative determination did not need to be changed. Determinations such as this one have continuously served me as an inspiration and not as a discouragement. At least a instance like this functions as a forewarning respecting strategies to be used in the future. To give yourself the greatest probability of enjoying success look at the nine videos at www.irsterminator.com.

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Tips & Tricks for Court member Carrol thinks with some modifications it can:

After Lindsey Springer was found guilty recently in spite of his Paperwork Reduction Act defense, Carrol postedwhat I consider to be some excellent researchto my Tips & Tricks for Court group on Yahoo:

Springer only had a portion of what he needed. There is quite a bit more that would have made that case, and ours should it become necessary,much more convincing for the jury.

The IRS, the Commissioner of Internal Revenue and the Department of the Treasury are all legally obligated to also comply with the Privacy Act of 1974 and the Federal Register Act.

To comply with these, 2 Treasury Directives exist- TD 25-03 Subject: Filing Documents for Publication with the Office of the Federal Register; TD 25-04 Subject: The Privacy Act of 1974, As Amended.

In the Federal Register publication, the Internal Revenue Service is required to follow the Paperwork Reduction Act.

Its not just the form that requires it, the regulations themselves are obligated by law to be printed in the Federal Register.

Failure of the Internal Revenue Service to adhere to the Federal Register Act means that they have failed to established universal applicability and official effect. re: 44 USC 1506, and 5 USC 553.

49 Stat. 501 Sect 5: “There shall be published in the Federal Register (1) all Presidential proclamations and Executive orders, except such as have no general applicability and legal effect or are effective only against Federal agencies or persons in their capacity as officers, agents or employees thereof; (2) such documents or classes of documents as the President shall determine from time to time have general applicability and legal effect; and (3) such documents or classes or documents as may be required so to be published by Act of the Congress: Provided, That for the purposes of this Act every document or order which shall prescribe a penalty shall be deemed to have general applicability and legal effect.”

I considered it a meaningful exercise to see if I could verify the regulations that give general applicability and official effect with respect to the 1040 form income section.

I collected a list from 26 CFR 602.101 to find the approved regulations attached to the 1040 form income section. There are over100 of them.

If you would like to see the conclusion of Carrol’s research on this topic visit this post at my blog legalbearsblog.com.

If you want to gain knowledge of how to do legal research like Carrol, get my Online Legal Research Video as a digital download and watch it on your notebook. Save 50% by putting 1040 in the coupon code redemption box as you are checking out. Coupon code good for a limited time.

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