Frowning takes 68 muscles.
Smiling takes 6.
Pulling this trigger takes 2.
I'm lazy.
Posted on 09/19/2009 12:24:00 PM PDT by reaganaut1
Five years ago, car-wash owner Orman Wilson set up a pension plan for himself and six employees. For that, he may owe the IRS a $1.2 million tax penalty.
Mr. Wilson, the owner of 19 coin-operated car washes in Houston, says he relied on four advisers, including a certified public accountant, to set up a plan that received approval from the Internal Revenue Service. Then, in late 2007, the IRS found fault with the plan and assessed it $250,000 -- plus special penalties of $1.2 million.
...
The source of the distress: tax-law changes made by Congress in 2004. At the time, lawmakers were worried that tax shelters, especially from large corporations, were costing the Treasury billions in revenue. To combat it, they imposed enormous fines on taxpayers who failed to tell the IRS of participation in any transaction the agency might consider a tax shelter.
"The fines are not for the shelter itself," says Mr. Brucker, "but merely for failing to file the form disclosing the transaction."
The penalty is $100,000 per offense, per year for individuals and $200,000 for businesses. In order to put teeth into the law, the provisions gave the IRS no leeway in imposing the fines and taxpayers no way to get them reviewed in Tax Court.
As drafted, they hit small businesses particularly hard because their entities of choice, Subchapter S and Limited Liability Companies, can incur both corporate and individual fines for every infraction.
National Taxpayer Advocate Nina Olson, an IRS employee charged with protecting taxpayers' rights, has said the fines "have the effect of bankrupting middle-class families who had no intention of entering into a tax shelter."
(Excerpt) Read more at online.wsj.com ...
“the provisions gave the IRS no leeway in imposing the fines and taxpayers no way to get them reviewed in Tax Court.”
I wonder if the courts will have a bit of say in this. No recourse for a citizen to appeal to another branch of government for relief?
Tell him to apply at ACORN for a job, or send a resume to the White House, he could be the CAR WASH Czar...the fact he is in arrears in his payments on taxes, puts him in top category for consideration. Did he contribute to the Democrats last election? Has he hired any illegal aliens? File for TARP, or some STIMULUS money, there is always a solution, the gub’mint always has solutions to our problems. Always.
The feds doing what they do best: destroying businesses and ruining lives.
Then the azzhats in DC wonder why there’s so much anger out here...
That’s the last thing small business needs to worry about. After their free handout, the banks are now sitting on capital, increasing fees and rates and slashing credit lines, getting ready for the commercial and credit defaults coming their way.
If you own a small business, as I do, you are going to be lucky to stay in business unless you have plenty of operating capital in the next year.
Go through your employees, get rid of any of the liberals that you probably already dislike and are not performing, slash your costs, reduce inventory, increase your cash deposits whenever possible, try to improve any buying advantage possible (I know, a good owner would be doing this already, but do it like your life depends on it, not as a routine) and hold your breath...we are in for a bumpy ride...
Another one of the reasons why Dave Ramsey enveighs against cash value or whole life insurance as being nothing more than a giant rip-off.
Read the article closely, it tells you that ALL the plans that ran into IRS trouble were funded by cash value life insurance plans and that the “experts” advising the businesses received commissions for selling them the plans.
Why should this guy have to pay fines, or taxes at all? OOOOPS...maybe he’s a republican!
This gentleman contributed to the McCain - Palin campaign FYI. Campaign donations are on the internet for all to see.
At almost every level...in almost every way, the government of the United States is completely out of control.
When the government mindset is the “nail” of nationalizing everything, then all that they do is viewed as the “hammer” of morphing to a single-payer employer. In this case, turn the screws (to metaphor switch slightly) on small business... the employees therein will eventually all work for bigger businesses.
How much in penalties and interest did Charlie Rangle pay again?
Is this your default answer for everything? Congress writes laws not the President.
Never mind. We had one and no one is paying attention. What's next?
That’s right - our government - for the people, by the people and TO the people!!!!
I realize you are stating that we will all be govenment employees eventually, but I am not sure how many are going to be willing to work at a car wash and if they did, they would slack off just like at the Post Office and nothing gets done in a timely manner. Now how will Obama pay all those generous Union benefits once we are all under his command and control??
If this happened to me I guess I would just shut down, get a Harley, and join a biker gang.
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