Historic homeownership rehabilitation credit
You're entitled to claim this credit if you:

• rehabilitate a qualified historic home in New York State, or
• purchase a rehabilitated qualified historic home in New York State.

A qualified historic home must be an owner-occupied residential structure (including a condominium or cooperative) listed on the State or National Register of Historic Places, or located in a state or national registered historic district and certified as being of historic significance to the district. The home must also be located in:

• a federal qualified census tract or area of chronic economic distress, or
• a census tract that is at 100% or below the state family median income level.

The New York State Office of Parks, Recreation, and Historic Preservation can help determine whether a building meets these requirements.
To qualify for the credit:

• You must own and reside in the historic home in New York State in the year for which you claim the credit.
• Qualifying rehabilitation costs for the project must be $5,000 or more.
• You must receive preliminary approval and a Certificate of Completion from the New York State Office of Parks, Recreation, and Historic Preservation.

You may also qualify for the credit if you purchased a qualified historic home and meet certain conditions.
How much is the credit?
The historic homeownership rehabilitation credit is equal to 20% of the qualified rehabilitation expenditures. The credit cannot exceed $50,000 per taxpayer per year. A husband and wife who are both eligible to claim the credit may each claim up to $50,000, whether they file joint or separate returns.

• If your New York adjusted gross income for the tax year is $60,000 or less and your credit is more than the tax you owe, the excess credit is refundable.
• If your New York adjusted gross income for the tax year is more than $60,000 and your credit is more than the tax you owe, the credit isn't refundable. However, you may carry over any excess credit to the following year or years.

For additional information on claiming this credit, see Form IT-237, Claim for Historic Homeownership Rehabilitation Credit, and its instructions, Form IT-237-I.

The Federal Historic Tax Credit may be able to help!

American Brewery Building, Baltimore MD

Utilizing the federal HTC is essentially a three-step process governed by regulations and procedures of the National Park Service (NPS) and the Internal Revenue Service (IRS):

1. QUALIFYING: The owner determines whether the project will qualify for the 10 percent or the 20 percent tax credit based on IRS and NPS qualification criteria;
2. EARNING: The owner follows the procedure established by the NPS to earn the credits;
3. REDEEMING: The owner consults IRS regulations to determine his/her ability to redeem the credits earned as a credit against federal tax liability.

Using the three-step process outlined above, this guide will traverse the often confusing web of federal regulations, helping to answer questions such as:

• Does my project qualify for the 10 percent historic tax credit or  the 20 percent historic tax credit?
• Does my planned rehabilitation satisfy the qualification criteria established by the IRS and NPS?
• How much of my earned credit will the IRS regulations allow me to redeem?
• Can I “sell” my credits to investors who can apply them to reduce their federal tax liability?

borrowed from
 http://ntcic.webfactional.com/tax-credit-basics/historic-tax-credit-guide/

Federal 20 and 10 Percent Historic Tax Credits

How to Use HistoricTax Credits

To qualify for either the 20 percent or the 10 percent historic tax credit, the rehabilitation must be “substantial”. A substantial rehabilitation means that a taxpayer’s QREs during a 24-month or 60-month measuring period (for a phased project) must exceed the “adjusted basis” of the building or $5,000, whichever is greater. The adjusted basis is generally defined as the purchase price, minus the cost of the land, plus the value of any capital improvements made since the building acquisition, minus any depreciation already taken. Eligible properties must be income-producing to qualify for historic tax credits; therefore, owner-occupied residences are not eligible.
To qualify for the 20 percent credit, the rehabilitation must also be certified as conforming to the Secretary’s Standards for Historic Rehabilitation. This certification is achieved by completing a three-part application process which is reviewed first by the state historic preservation office (SHPO) and then by the National Park Service (NPS).

• Part 1 makes the case for National Register property listing or verifies that a property is a contributing structure in a National Register District;
• Part 2 summarizes the scope of the rehabilitation; and
• Part 3 documents that the work has been done as proposed in the approved Part 2.

Virtually all of the rules that apply to the 20 percent historic credit apply to the 10 percent credit with a few notable exceptions. The 10 percent credit requires no design review at the state or federal level, but there is a “wall test” requiring that three of the original four exterior walls remain intact. If this property is located within a historic district, the Part 1 application must be filed and approved by the National Park Service to confirm its non-contributing status. To redeem the 10 percent credit, the developer simply needs to attach Form 3468 to his/her tax return.
The compliance and recapture period for the federal historic credits is five years from the date the property is placed in service. Twenty percent of the recapture risk burns off every year.

How Nonprofit Groups Can Use Tax Credits

Nonprofit organizations and public agencies do not pay federal or state income taxes and therefore have no tax liability against which to apply historic tax credits. Also, many for-profit entities are not in a tax position to make full use of the value of the credit. Fortunately, in these instances, it is still possible to tap into the value of the historic tax credit by transferring (or ‘syndicating’) the tax credit to a corporate investor, or in certain instances, individuals, who then use the tax credit to offset some of their own tax liability.

 quoted from
 http://ntcic.webfactional.com/tax-credit-basics/federal-tax-credit-basics/utilization/

Scam Phone Calls Continue; IRS Identifies Five Easy Ways to Spot Suspicious Calls

The Internal Revenue Service issued a consumer alert today providing taxpayers with additional tips to protect themselves from telephone scam artists calling and pretending to be with the IRS.
These callers may demand money or may say you have a refund due and try to trick you into sharing private information. These con artists can sound convincing when they call. They may know a lot about you, and they usually alter the caller ID to make it look like the IRS is calling. They use fake names and bogus IRS identification badge numbers. If you don’t answer, they often leave an “urgent” callback request.
“These telephone scams are being seen in every part of the country, and we urge people not to be deceived by these threatening phone calls,” IRS Commissioner John Koskinen said. “We have formal processes in place for people with tax issues. The IRS respects taxpayer rights, and these angry, shake-down calls are not how we do business.”
The IRS reminds people that they can know pretty easily when a supposed IRS caller is a fake. Here are five things the scammers often do but the IRS will not do. Any one of these five things is a tell-tale sign of a scam. The IRS will never:

1. Call you about taxes you owe without first mailing you an official notice.
2. Demand that you pay taxes without giving you the opportunity to question or appeal the amount they say you owe.
3. Require you to use a specific payment method for your taxes, such as a prepaid debit card.
4. Ask for credit or debit card numbers over the phone.
5. Threaten to bring in local police or other law-enforcement groups to have you arrested for not paying.

If you get a phone call from someone claiming to be from the IRS and asking for money, here’s what you should do:

• If you know you owe taxes or think you might owe, call the IRS at 1.800.829.1040. The IRS workers can help you with a payment issue.
• If you know you don’t owe taxes or have no reason to believe that you do, report the incident to the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration (TIGTA) at 1.800.366.4484 or at www.tigta.gov.
• If you’ve been targeted by this scam, also contact the Federal Trade Commission and use their “FTC Complaint Assistant” at FTC.gov. Please add "IRS Telephone Scam" to the comments of your complaint.

Remember, too, the IRS does not use email, text messages or any social media to discuss your personal tax issue. For more information on reporting tax scams, go to www.irs.gov and type “scam” in the search box.

Recent Tax Fraud Cases

Some of our favorite recent tax fraud cases:
Laredo, Texas: Preparer Michelle A. Morin has been arrested following the return of a 14-count indictment alleging she aided and assisted in the preparation of false and fraudulent income tax returns.
The indictment alleges that between tax years of 2007 to 2010, Morin helped prepare false and fraudulent 1040s that included fake business losses, interest and taxes paid, gifts to charity, job expenses and miscellaneous deductions, as well as residential energy credits. She is accused of assisting in the preparation of 14 fraudulent returns for seven taxpayers during the four-year-period, resulting in a total loss to the government of more than $220,000.
If convicted, Morin faces a maximum three years in prison and a $250,000 fine on each count. She was released on $75,000 bail after surrendering her U.S. passport.St. Louis: Preparer Christopher Mickles has been charged with four felony counts of aiding and abetting in the preparation of false returns.
Mickles, owner and operator of Discount Tax Service, is charged in connection with preparing more than 750 federal income tax returns for clients during tax years 2008 through 2011. Many of those returns falsely claimed fraudulent items and credits, such as household-help income and EITCs.  
If convicted, he faces a maximum of 12 years in prison or a fine of up to $400,000, or both.
Maplewood, N.J.: Preparer Carlyle Fraser, owner of Fraser CPA and Taxko Inc., has pleaded guilty to his role in preparing returns with false information. He was charged with one count of aiding and assisting in the preparation of false individual income tax returns.
According to case documents and statements in court, from 2008 through 2011 Fraser prepared and filed false returns for his clients. On April 8, 2011, he prepared a false 2010 individual income tax return for an undercover agent, which claimed false deductions for medical and dental expenses, charitable contributions, unreimbursed employee expenses, tuition, a business loss and a capital gains loss.
Fraser, who caused a tax loss to the IRS of $149,739, faces a maximum of three years in prison and a fine of $250,000. Sentencing is June 25.
Cincinati: Preparer Kesha Spencer, 39, has pleaded guilty one count of aiding and assisting in the preparation of false federal income tax returns.
According to court documents, Spencer operated the tax prep business Tax Cash Sooo Fast, where she prepared and e-filed some 200 false returns for each of the 2010 and 2011 income tax years. The returns falsely reported household income, head of household filing status and dependents, and also falsely claimed refundable credits, including the EITC, the Making Work Pay Credit and the American Opportunities Credit. Some of the returns prepared and filed by Spencer were entirely fictitious, including those filed on behalf of several individuals in jail at the time. The tax loss came to some 103,541.97.
Spencer also filed false 2010 and 2011 individual income tax returns for herself that omitted most of the income she earned from preparing returns through Tax Cash Sooo Fast and omitted unemployment compensation she received in 2010 and claimed false Schedule A and Schedule C expenses. Tax loss associated with the filing of these returns was $33,245.27.
Spencer was released on bond and will be sentenced on June 3, when she faces a maximum of three years in prison and a fine of up to $100,000.
Plantation, Fla.: The United States has asked a federal court to permanently bar Keisha Stewart and her company, Professional Tax Services Inc., from preparing federal returns for others. According to the complaint, Stewart and her company prepared federal income tax returns that inflated income or included fictitious income to qualify clients to receive or maximize the EITC.
The complaint states that Stewart also claimed credits for refunds or to decrease tax on her clients’ returns, including false education and residential energy credits. According to the complaint, Stewart also falsely claimed head of household status on behalf of clients who did not qualify to decrease their tax liabilities. Stewart also allegedly claimed false dependents on behalf of clients and claimed the child and additional child tax credits on behalf of those clients. Allegedly she typically included these items on clients’ returns without their knowledge.
The government claims Stewart’s returns cost it more than $1.6 million annually during the tax years 2010, 2011 and 2012.
New York: Former police officer and moonlighting preparer Jonathan Wally, 34, has received five years’ probation for tax fraud and ID theft related to his preparation and filing of false and fraudulent individual income tax returns.
According to case papers, from 2003 until his arrest last April, Wally was assigned to the 34th Precinct in the Washington Heights/Inwood section of Manhattan. Since at least 2008, he was a tax preparer registered with the IRS. Although the NYPD requires officers to obtain written authorization to engage in off-duty employment, Wally never sought or obtained such authorization.
From 2010 through April 2012, he defrauded the IRS out of refunds to others based on fraudulent and false tax returns he prepared and filed. The returns claimed, among other things, false deductions for dependents. Continuing through January 2013, Wally also prepared and filed returns on his own behalf that claimed false dependents and failed to declare certain income. In connection with this scheme, he obtained the personal ID information and Social Security numbers of children and declared those children as dependents on returns he prepared and filed on behalf of others and himself.
The IRS paid these taxpayers at least $146,818 in fraudulent refunds, and fraudulent returns prepared and filed by Wally caused the IRS to pay him at least $48,990 in bogus refunds. In total, Wally’s scheme defrauded the IRS of $195,808.
Wally’s probation will include six months of intermediate confinement and one year of electronic monitoring to run concurrent to confinement. In addition to probation and intermediate confinement, Wally, who pleaded guilty in August, was ordered to pay a $400 special fee and $195,808 in restitution to the IRS.

The New York State-issued income tax refund debit card offers these 
advantages:
    Safe:         More secure than paper check refunds
    Economical:   No monthly fees and no check cashing fees
    Flexible:     Can be used to make online and in-store purchases
                  with no fee; or ATM withdrawals
                  (in most cases, with no fee) 
    Easy:         Just choose the debit card option on the New York 
                  State tax return.