Author Archives: Russ

Sovereign Stupidity

Posted on November 20, 2016 by Russ

Most electrical engineers are intelligent. Perhaps I’m biased: My father was an electrical engineer and my brother has a degree in electrical engineering. This story focuses on an electrical engineer who showed a lack of intelligence in dealing with taxes. … Continue reading →

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Gambling With an Edge Podcast

Posted on November 20, 2016 by Russ

I am the guest on this week’s Gambling With an Edge Podcast. We discuss year-end tax planning, Caesars’ bankruptcy, tax deadline changes for 2016 returns, and how the final table players of the main event of the World Series of … Continue reading →

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A Housekeeping Message

Posted on November 20, 2016 by Russ

We will soon be changing hosting companies. If you subscribe to this blog you may need to resubscribe once this occurs. The changeover should happen in the next couple of weeks.

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This Isn’t What I Think of When I Hear “Law School”

Posted on November 13, 2016 by Russ

When I think of a law school, I think of a university teaching students how to be attorneys. My cousin is a professor at the University of Chicago Law School; that’s a law school. That’s not what I’m writing about … Continue reading →

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What Will President Trump Do To Our Taxes?

Posted on November 9, 2016 by Russ

When I woke up this morning I discovered yet another impossible item just happened (the Cubs really did win the World Series, right?). The media was saying that Hillary Clinton was going to be President. Oops. So what will President-Elect … Continue reading →

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No Gambling Log, No Problem, Right?

Posted on November 8, 2016 by Russ

Two married poker players worked as house players (commonly called “proposition players” or “props”) in California. They were paid wages for their work, but they had gambling winnings that they didn’t include on their tax return. They state they lost … Continue reading →

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The 2016 Real Winners of the World Series of Poker

Posted on November 2, 2016 by Russ

Nine individuals came to Las Vegas over the last three days to compete for the championship at the World Series of Poker (WSOP). Who would be the lucky winner? And who really got to keep the money? This year’s winner’s … Continue reading →

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Stealing From the Disabled Worked…For a While

Posted on October 30, 2016 by Russ

Virginia and Derma Miller, mother and daughter, had a good thing going. They took identities of the physically and mentally disabled and filed tax returns on their behalf. Of course, those returns all had refunds, with those refunds finding their … Continue reading →

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That Was the Tax Season That Was

Posted on October 19, 2016 by Russ

Well, my sixteenth Tax Season is in the books. Let’s see what was good, bad, and ugly–and I’ll include a warning for next year. The Good: First, the IRS did a much better job with the Practitioner Priority Service (PPS). … Continue reading →

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On Disclosure

Posted on October 10, 2016 by Russ

As you may have heard, there’s a Presidential campaign going on. I try hard to avoid politics in this blog, but one story that came out relates to Donald Trump taking a Net Operating Loss (NOL) on his tax return. … Continue reading →

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