The straight line

When a farmer grows crops, much time and tender loving care are required to ensure a successful harvest. When you meet with potential customers, it is unreasonable to expect that they are going to stop going to the competition and move to your firm. Prospects who have specific needs that are not being met are like...

Which of the following violates an FTC rule? A company produces barbecue grills at a Nevada plant. The major components are made in the U.S. but the knobs and tubing are made in Mexico. The company advertises that the grills are “Made in the U.S.A.” A company advertises its product, which was invented in Seattle...

In October, the IRS issued new guidance targeting strategies that are used to exploit the tax benefits associated with partnerships and limited liability companies (LLCs) that are treated as partnerships for tax purposes. In a nutshell, under the new guidance, property transactions between partners and partnerships are more likely to be classified as disguised sales and,...

On October 5, 2016, the IRS released new temporary and final Section 752 regulations. Sec. 752 of the Internal Revenue Code and related regulations explain how to allocate partnership debt among partners for purposes of calculating the basis of their partnership interests. This calculation determines what’s often referred to as the partners’ “outside basis” in the...

Congress originally devised the alternative minimum tax (AMT) rules to ensure that high-income individuals who take advantage of multiple tax breaks will owe something to Uncle Sam each year. In recent years, however, that concept has eroded. Now, even upper-middle-income taxpayers are likely to owe the AMT. Here’s an overview of how the AMT works and...

A “100% penalty” can be assessed against a responsible person when federal income tax and/or federal employment taxes are withheld from employee paychecks but aren’t handed over to the government. This Trust Fund Recovery Penalty got its informal “100% penalty” moniker from the fact that the entire unpaid amount can be assessed against a responsible person (or...