Tax Return Position Paper Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words - 1

Tax Return Position Paper - Essay Example Question One Issued by the government’s administrative, judicial and legislative branches through the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), the Treasury Department and Congress, primary tax law sources bear more statutory authority than the secondary sources. The most significant primary sources include the Internal Revenue Code, public laws and income tax treaties (Lederman & Mazza, 2009). Then there are treasury regulations; revenue procedures; revenue rulings; announcements and notices published by the IRS; legislative history; and legal judgment on tax affairs. Treasury regulations usually remain in the form of proposed, temporary or non-codified tax statutes, until they are certified as final or reliance regulations. The IRS also supplements such sources by making actions and decisions, audit technique guides and the internal revenue manual accessible by the public (Ellen, 2012). Developed by the IRS, these initiatives support the fundamental Internal Revenue Code through taxpa yer assistance services such as the Frequently Asked Questions feature, forms on federal tax instructions and IRS publications. References made to decisions arrived at by tax courts are also considerably detailed sources that bear interpretations specific to taxpayers. Question Two Though not of equal statutory weight as the primary sources, secondary sources of tax law bear their own significance in the way they offer a comprehensive starting point to research. They are usually in the form of publications, books and articles written by tax professionals, scholars and legal analysts (Lederman & Mazza, 2009). These sources mainly occur as newsletter, textbooks, articles appearing in legal periodicals, treatises and reports on tax law published by institutions that offer commercial services in tax research. These secondary sources mainly find, scrutinize, clarify and interpret what the primary sources have provided. Question Three Substantial authority entails the recognized standards frequently used for the defense of a tax preparer in the possible event of negligence and understatement. As per the provisions of IRC 1.6694-2, a tax preparer is required to support such tax positions as prepared with the sources he used (Don, 2008). The sources are evaluated basing on their authority, where the primary sources bear the most authority. If the tax preparer is found to have relied on and used substantial authority in arriving at the position presented for the returns, a possible penalty is waived. The intended objective of substantial authority is to determine that most primary sources of tax law support the preparer’s position. The constituents of substantive authority include the Internal Revenue Code, statutory provisions, tax treaties, committee reports, and the Treasury Department’s official position on treaties. Question Four The IRS, which operates under the Treasury Department as an administrative body, has the key role of processing tax return s and examining them for deficiencies. It also issues Revenue Rulings, Notices and Revenue Procedures, which are administrative decisions explaining specific taxpayer issues or the precise manner in which items must be treated. The IRS also the mandate to alter rulings or regulations and, in such a case, courts hearing future cases will encounter new questions. On the

Morality And Business Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Morality And Business - Essay Example But here, the key fact to be noted is that, the existing laws have authorized these false claims, to a certain extent. Here, the obvious implication is that most of the businesses need to adhere to ethics, only to the extent dictated by the law. Beyond that, most of the entities are in no way willing to tread on the path of morality, lest their commercial motives are compromised. (1) Whether staunch adherents of morality like it or not, but the fact is that businesses cannot afford to lay excess emphasis on ethics, barring the legal stipulations. This is even more relevant in this contemporary era of heightened competition. There is no way in which business houses can survive in the markets if they choose to give tremendous weight to moralistic ideals. In the context of the subject being focused upon in this paper, the only candid response is â€Å"Yes! It is not moral to do business!† Here, it has to be specifically mentioned that this particular response is addressed to only those who believe that, come what may, there should not be even a minute deviation from the ethical principles. (1) Of course, there is no denying of the fact that, even in this day, there are business organizations running the extra mile in sticking to some aspects of morality. In most of these cases, this results from the entities being committed to any particular social cause, or being associated with any non-profit organizations. Whatever may be the driving force behind the moral commitment of a business, the key point is that it is their voluntary decision to address various ethical issues. The law in no way mandates that business houses do stick to all the norms that fall under the purview of morality. (1) A brief focus on another real life example would make one to comprehend as to why morality, after a certain point, has no place in business practices. When the matter of deliberations between management and trade union is taken, the irrefutable fact is that both the parties conceal the truth from each other. It is also a fact that when viewed only from the angle of ethics, lying is highly improper. But in this example, both the parties are aware that the other party is lying, and owing to this, it just cannot be expected that there is a scope for speaking the truth. As a matter of fact, in this example, if either of the party decides that there is nothing greater than being moralistic and that they should speak only the truth, then there would be only one consequence: Its interests would be compromised at the altar of moralistic idealism. (1) It is not that all the arguments are only one side; there are people who strongly argue that businesses can further their commercial objectives, even by laying lot of emphasis on ethical norms. For example, an argument here is that when a company, by adhering to morals, manufactures safe products, the same would drastically minimize the chances of facing suits related to product liability. This in turn makes sure that even the financial resources of the company are safeguarded. For, it is but obvious that severe financial implications are inevitable while facing legal suits.