Law Commons^™

Form 990: Useful In Analyzing Not-For-Profit Ministries?, Il-Woon Kim, Charles K. Moore, Richard W. Metcalf

Akron Tax Journal

The major purpose of this article is to analyze the Forms 990 filed with the IRS by some religious organizations including television evangelists. Specifically, this article (1) examines the financial operations of religious organizations, such as revenue generation, spending, investment and borrowing; (2) investigates their accounting practices and conformance to generally accepted accounting principles; and (3) discusses the usefulness of Form 990 in monitoring tax-exempt religious organizations. The results of this study will provide evidence on whether the Form 990 filed by religious organizations conforms to generally accepted accounting principles and fairly represents their financial operations. The results will also …

Substance Over Form: The Conerstone Of Our Tax System Or A Lethal Weapon In The Irs's Arsenal?, Ray A. Knight, Lee G. Knight

Akron Tax Journal

This article reviews the IRS and court usage of the substance over form doctrine to determine its role in the federal tax system. The specific issue addressed is whether the doctrine is the cornerstone of the federal tax system or merely another lethal weapon in the IRS's arsenal. To accomplish this objective, the article focuses on the doctrine's development in Supreme Court cases, and describes the primary ancillary tax principles applied to create and shape the doctrine: arm's-length versus self-dealing, business purpose versus tax avoidance, and step versus independent transaction treatment of a series of interrelated transactions. The issue of …

The Simplified Employee Pension: An Increasingly Attractive Alternative Among Qualified Retirement Plans, Richard J. Kovach

Akron Tax Journal

Even if the SEP rules remain unaltered for the next several years, employers will want to continue questioning whether their retirement contribution objectives are best served by conventional plans that are increasingly more difficult to administer and keep tax-qualified.9 In effect, the SEP may become more attractive by default, as I.R.C. § 401(a) plans continue to become less attractive as a result of the overly complex legislative and regulatory tinkering to which they are subject. Practitioners should reconsider this point when reviewing each new change or interpretation of law affecting standard qualified retirement plans.

The discussion that follows is organized …

Establishing Reasonableness Of Compensation Difficult In Irs Attackes, Michael P. Watters, Daryl Burckel

Akron Tax Journal

With this in mind, reasonable compensation determinations have developed a different twist for shareholder-employees of Subchapter S corporations. As the payroll tax burden continues to increase, it now appears that the respective positions of the taxpayer and the IRS in issues of reasonable compensation, at least in the case of S corporations, are being reversed. Thus the issue has turned to how small, rather than how large, a shareholder-employee's salary may be and still be considered reasonable.

The topic at hand centers around minimizing the payroll tax burden of the shareholder-employee. In recent years, payroll taxes have increased substantially in …

Bankruptcy Officials Vs. The Internal Revenue Service: A Federal House Divided Against Itself, Craig J. Langstraat, Mark S. Aquadro

Akron Tax Journal

This article will discuss several current areas of dispute between bankruptcy officials; i.e., trustees and judges, and the Internal Revenue Service ("IRS") as evidenced by litigation in the U.S. Supreme Court and certain federal circuit courts of appeal. A policy resolution to the numerous conflicts will be suggested along with specific statutory modifications to alleviate the costly burden of continued future litigation.

An Indepth Analysis Of The New Money Laundering Statutes, Peter J. Kacarab

Akron Tax Journal

This article will analyze in depth the elements, application, and limitation of these statutes. It is the author's intent that the reader, after digesting the following pages, will come away with an understanding of the statutes and have an appreciation that these laws, although not a panacea, can be a powerful new tool for the Federal government in its war against crime.