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Tax Court Judges are appointed by the President of the United States for 15 year terms.

Nationwide there are 19 regular court judges, 11 senior judges and 5 special judges.

There are approximately 30,000 tax cases handled by the US Tax Court each year.

93 to 95% percent of of tax court cases that are put on the calendar are settled in the months leading up to the actual court date.

Of the 5% to 7% of tax cases that actually are heard by the judge, the IRS wins more cases than it loses.  But what about the others that settled beforehand and won?

More information about tax court can be found at www.ustaxcourt.gov

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Just electronically filed the first 2009 tax return of my tax season. All went swimmingly well considering I am studying a 5 dvd, 600 page tax update manual of all the law changes.  I am not complaining though.  It is the nonstop tinkering with the tax code that makes life interesting for practitioners.

Monday will spend all day attending tax court class and observing actual tax court cases in the Portland US Tax Court.

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Accounting Web has an article about the new duties the IRS will have regarding the new health care insurance reform bill:

Monitoring compliance. Taxpayers will have to provide proof of coverage with their annual federal tax returns. Failure to comply will result in a penalty, payable to the IRS.

Distributing new government subsidies to low-income individuals through newly created state exchanges.

Overseeing small business tax credits to help qualifying businesses provide insurance to employees.

Assessing a tax on insurers that provide insurance benefits that are high-cost, or “Cadillac” plans.

Enforcing penalties for improper distributions from Health Savings Accounts, which Kaiser says will increase under the new plan.

Overseeing the demand that not-for-profit hospitals live up to their “charitable missions” by doing a “charitable needs assessment” once every three years.

Regulating contributions to Flexible Spending Accounts, which Kaiser estimates will be limited.

Is the IRS up to the task?

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Brad Shannon of the Olympian outlines new taxes being contemplated for Washington State to help with the budget crisis:

• Closing the exemption for door-to-door sales of consumer products
• Add $1 to the state’s $2.025-a-pack tax on cigarettes
• Tax on bottled water
• Sales tax on candy and gum
• Closing a sales tax exemption for some out-of-state residents who buy products in Washington
• Temporary sales tax increase or expanding the sales tax to professional services
• Sales tax on services (lawyers, engineers, detectives, security brokers, credit agencies, insurers)
• Income tax on high-wage earners
• $1.50-per-barrel tax on oil (3.5 cents a gallon on fuel)

Unless a miracle happens and the economy picks up dramatically, you can be sure higher taxes are coming your way one way or another.

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2 Comments

• At January 13, 2010, Angie in WA State wrote:

  I am not surprised, nor, to my own amazement, unable to see the necessity for these increases. Better to spread the pain, than to simply add on to home property taxes (those have already increased, at least for me, over 300% since about 1995).

  The one that I am most surprised to see is Closing a sales tax exemption for some out-of-state residents who buy products in Washington. It's about time the State of WA quits trying to fool anyone that those border-state (Portland, OR) shoppers will fail to buy in our state if we stop letting them off the hook for the sales tax, most of them are over here shopping for food, anyway, and in our state, that comes tax free (for food for home cooking and consumption, anyway). WA workers have been paying (at least 9%) in income tax to the state of Oregon for decades now, it's past time we reciprocate.

• At March 8, 2010, Christina Theis wrote:

  Another $1 added to a pack of cigarettes is just ridiculous.There simply have to be other ways to generate revenue than yet another sin tax. It is vaugely remenicent of the way the marajuana was slowly criminalized, starting by creating miles of red tape with contradictory rules,making it absurdly expensive and then slowly backing flawed medical information declarying it "dangerous" and "addictive". While smoking cigarettes is certainly a health risk this unfair taxation is starting to feel punative instead of a legitamate tax.

  While there are smokers in all socio-econmic groups, the facts are this tax is placing the burden largely on the shoulders of those who can afford it the least. Add a dollar to your morning latte and THAT would be equitable.

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Determining your filing status for tax purposes is easy, right?  If you are single with no children, yes.  However sometimes the correct filing status can be tricky.

You can be married the entire year but if your are legally divorced on New Year’s Eve, you are considered single for tax purposes for that year.  Even if you are married, you can file as head of household under certain circumstances if your spouse did not live with you for the last half of the year.  If your spouse dies during the year, you still file as married even though you may be legally single on the last day of the year.  If you are married, you can choose to file “married filing separately”.   Oftentimes doing so will result in higher total taxes for you and your spouse but there are special circumstances your taxes will be lower or when you want to legally insulate yourself from your spouse’s tax obligations.

And recently mixing things up even more for filing status determination are same sex marriages.  These marriages are not yet recognized at the Federal level but in certain circumstances (as in Oregon), these marriages are recognized for state income tax purposes.  This requires filing different sets of tax returns for Federal and State tax purposes.

Consulting a tax professional will help make sure you are using the legal and best filing status for your circumstances.

From the IRS today:

IRS TAX TIP 2010-03

Eight Facts About Filing Status

Everyone who files a federal tax return must determine which filing status applies to them. It’s important you choose your correct filing status as it determines your standard deduction, the amount of tax you owe and ultimately, any refund owed to you.

Here are eight facts about the five filing status options the IRS wants you to know in order to choose the correct filing status for your situation.

1. Your marital status on the last day of the year determines your marital status for the entire year.
2. If more than one filing status applies to you, choose the one that gives you the lowest tax obligation.
3. Single filing status generally applies to anyone who is unmarried, divorced or legally separated according to state law.
4. A married couple may file a joint return together. The couple’s filing status would be Married Filing Jointly.
5. If your spouse died during the year and you did not remarry during 2009, you may still file a joint return with that spouse for the year of death, provided the joint return election is not revoked by a personal representative for the deceased spouse.
6. A married couple may elect to file their returns separately. Each person’s filing status would generally be Married Filing Separately.
7. Head of Household generally applies to taxpayers who are unmarried. You must also have paid more than half the cost of maintaining a home for you and a qualifying person to qualify for this filing status.
8. You may be able to choose Qualifying Widow(er) with Dependent Child as your filing status if your spouse died during 2007 or 2008, you have a dependent child and you meet certain other conditions.

There’s much more information about determining your filing status in Publication 501, Exemptions, Standard Deduction, and Filing Information. Publication 501 is available on IRS.gov or by calling 800-TAX-FORM (800-829-3676).

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Issued by the IRS today.

Click to enlarge

Click to enlarge

Here is the entire 2009 IRS Pub 17.

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