November 6, 1995

Receipts No Longer Required for Most Under $75 T & E Expenses

          The IRS announced that effective for expenses paid or incurred on or after October 1, 1995, documentary evidence of business travel and entertainent expenses such as receipts or paid bills, is not necessary for expenditures under $75. ThatՀs triple the $25 threshold that has applied since 1962. The regulations also allow a tip to be treated as a separate expenditure. For example, no receipt is required if an otherwise allowable business dinner for two costs $70 and the taxpayer paying for the meal leaves a $12 tip.

NYC Mails Erroneous UBT Notices

          The NYC Department of Finance reported the mailing of approximately 30,000 notices to taxpayers regarding their potential liability for filing NYC Unincorporated Business Tax Returns. These notices, subsequently determined to be issued in error based on faulty data, have been proactively cancelled without taxpayer or practitioner intervention. Written notification concerning the closing of these cased will be mailed in the near future by the Department of Finance. These notices are identified as UBT-NF questionaires dated July 25, 1995 for the tax years 1991-1993 with case numbers ranging from 002892350S to 002899201S and 002900322S to 002923491S.

Must Pay in Full

          You can sue for a tax refund in U.S. District Court only if you pay the entire disputed tax liability befire filing your case in Court. When an individual paid part of a disputed tax bill after filing his case but before the case was actually heard, the Court ruled that the payment had been made too late. The case was dismissed. If you want to avoid this result see us early so that you can use the U.S. Tax Court which is much less costly in that you do not have to pay the entire disputed liability first.

          If you have any questions about these or any other matters, please call me.