Brotman Law Featured in Inc. Magazine - Fastest Growing Law Firm in California

How to Prepare for a 1099 Independent Contractor Audit

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In this article, we are going to dive into the nuts and bolts of how to really prepare for a 1099 Independent Contractor Audit and potential misclassification issues.

Key Takeaways

  • Gathering the 1099 independent contractor information
  • Google and Social Media Screening in 1099 Independent Contractor Audit Preparation
  • Other Key Documents in Preparing Supporting Documentation for the 1099 Independent Contractor Audit

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4 Frequently Asked Questions about California State Taxes

4CAQuestionsBlog

Key Takeaways

  • What advice can you give me about setting up a payment plan with the State of California?
  • Will California grant me innocent spouse relief?
  • How does financial analysis work for collections cases in California?
  • How does California locate taxpayers and their assets?
  • Conclusion

As a tax attorney, I get asked a lot of questions everyday regarding – you guessed it – the rather specialized world of California taxation. To be sure, some questions are asked more frequently than others. In light of this, I’ve given some thought to four frequently asked questions and hope that my answers provide you with the information that you’re interested in.

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IRS Prioritizes More Delinquent, High-Income Taxpayers

IRS ROCS Blog

Imagine yourself working as an IRS agent. Your department is in charge of identifying delinquent, high-income taxpayers who gross $200,000 or more per year in your state.

Key Takeaways

  • Imagine yourself working as an IRS agent. Your department is in charge of identifying delinquent, high-income taxpayers who gross $200,000 or more per year in your state.
  • Looking at a computer spreadsheet, you verify several names and socials of small business owners whose gross pay tops out at about $300,000 annually. Each taxpayer owes the government between $70,000 to a $150,000 in back taxes from 2016-2019.
  • On another spreadsheet, five very wealthy taxpayers who work in different fields are listed. Three out of five have c-level titles connected to large corporate subsidiaries, one is a best-selling author, and one owns a sports team.

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Taxpayers, the IRS and Cryptocurrency

Cryptocurrency Blog

Tesla made waves when it announced in an SEC filing on February 8, 2021 that it purchased $1.5 billion worth of bitcoin. Tesla also announced that it will start accepting bitcoin as payment for its products, which makes it the first major automotive manufacturer to do so.

Key Takeaways

  • The popularity of bitcoin has risen with its value. This rise in popularity has piqued the interest of the IRS.
  • If interested in the basics of cryptocurrency, the tax status of virtual currency, and why contacting legal experts in the field is a taxpayer’s best bet moving forward, the following information will help you understand more about this digital economy.
  • Virtual currency, often called cryptocurrency, or “crypto” for short, has been around since 2009. Bitcoin was created to be a peer-to-peer direct payment system that allowed users to transfer funds to each other without using a bank.

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Know about Tax Debt before Filing for Bankruptcy

Bankruptcy Cliff

Filing for bankruptcy may feel like accidentally stepping off a cliff – it’s not something most people can mentally prepare themselves for in advance. 

Key Takeaways

  • Filing for bankruptcy may feel like accidentally stepping off a cliff – it’s not something most people can mentally prepare themselves for in advance.
  • When it happens and you find yourself falling, it’s difficult to know if you’ll hit rocks below and suffer permanent damage. Alternately, you could plunge into a lake, bob to the surface and have an easy swim to shore.
  • Then there are the issues that accompany the decision to file such as tax consequences. The debtor must try to satisfy not just the creditors, but often federal and/or state tax collectors.

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Establishing Residency or Domicile in California Can Be Taxing

ResidencyDomicileBlog

Robert Wood, tax expert and frequent contributor to Forbes.com, wrote that “many would-be former Californians have unrealistic expectations about establishing residency in a new state. They may have a hard time distancing themselves from California, and they may not plan on California tax authorities pursuing them.” 

Key Takeaways

  • Guidance Questions of Facts
  • Temporary or Transitory Purposes
  • What About Domicile?

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Can Internal Revenue Code Section 1202 Benefit You?

Section1202 Blog

There is a generous tax benefit that only select taxpayers qualify for. Not well known, it is called ‘‘qualified small business stock,’’ or QSBS for short, and is found in Section 1202 of the Internal Revenue Code. Titled the “Partial Exclusion for Gain from Certain Small Business Stock,” it allows taxpayers to exclude gain from certain stock.

Key Takeaways

  • There is a generous tax benefit that only select taxpayers qualify for.
  • The original language of the section allowed taxpayers to not include 50% of any gain from sale or exchange of qualified small business stock held more than five years from gross income.
  • In the case of qualified small business stock acquired in 2010 and beyond, 100% shall be substituted for 50% in § 1202(a)(1). (§ 1202(a)(4)).

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California FTB Knocking Harder on Business Doors

FTBandBusinessBlog

We are now more than a year removed from the first reported COVID-19 case in the United States. Since then, government-forced shutdowns have rocked hundreds of thousands of businesses. When the catastrophic news hit, most business owners made the health and safety of themselves and their employees priority one.

Key Takeaways

  • Business concerns including taxes do not just evaporate with terrible news, however.
  • To help take some of the burden off of your shoulders I’ve written this article to walk you through the tax collections process for California businesses.
  • It will also notify the business whether there are outstanding tax issues and if so, allows a reasonable time for the business entity to comply.

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Offers in Compromise, The IRS and COVID-19

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Back taxes can be a sore subject – one that never makes anyone smile – except perhaps in the movies. In the first season of the The Kominsky Method, an American comedy-drama on Netflix, an aging but still debonair Michael Douglas plays a once successful actor now Hollywood acting coach named Sandy Kominsky, who finds himself neck-deep in tax debt.

Key Takeaways

  • The Offer in Compromise
  • COVID-19 Pre-July 15, 2020
  • COVID-19 Post-July 15, 2020 
  • As the Pandemic Continues, so might IRS Relief Initiatives

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The State of FTB Tax Collections for Individuals

California State Mask2

“Whether you agree that raising taxes during an economic recession is bad for the economy or not, state and local governments should be doing everything in their power to bid Congress to provide more direct aid. This would minimize the need for tax increases or spending cuts,” wrote Michael Mazerov in Tax Notes.

Key Takeaways

  • “Whether you agree that raising taxes during an economic recession is bad for the economy or not, state and local governments should be doing everything in their power to bid Congress to provide more direct aid.
  • In previous articles, I touched on tax liability issues that predominantly covered taxpayers owing money to the IRS. The citizens of California could also owe taxes to the California Franchise Tax Board (FTB).
  • What does the FTB collections process look like for individuals in California and how has COVID-19 impacted these policies.

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Brotman Law Featured in Inc. Magazine - Fastest Growing Law Firm in California