Procedurally Taxing: Honest Mistakes Happen, But a Two Million Dollar Difference in Mortgage Interest Will Likely Trigger An Accuracy-Related Penalty (February 28, 2022)

Leslie Book, Professor of Law at the Villanova University Charles Widger School of Law, has made available for download her article, “Honest Mistakes Happen, But a Two Million Dollar Difference in Mortgage Interest Will Likely Trigger An Accuracy-Related Penalty” published on the Procedurally Taxing blog. The article begins as follows:

Busch v Commissioner, a small tax case issued as a bench opinion, involves a couple who claimed to have made an honest mistake on their self-prepared tax return.  According to the Busches, when using their tax return prep software, the software did not allow them to enter cents when recording the mortgage interest paid in a year. The Busches paid $21,201.25 in deductible mortgage interest and entered $21,201.25 line for their mortgage interest, but the software, kicking out the cents, recorded the deduction as $2,120,125 instead. The couple of million dollar difference led IRS to likely discover the error automatically via document matching.

To see the full article, click here: “Honest Mistakes Happen, But a Two Million Dollar Difference in Mortgage Interest Will Likely Trigger An Accuracy-Related Penalty”

Posted by Anthony Tran, Associate Editor, Wealth Strategies Journal