{"id":5230,"date":"2012-06-26T09:05:49","date_gmt":"2012-06-26T14:05:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/panamaadvisoryinternationalgroup.com\/blog\/?p=5230"},"modified":"2012-06-28T13:36:47","modified_gmt":"2012-06-28T18:36:47","slug":"golf-carts-to-island-divorces-10-notorious-tax-loopholes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/panamaadvisoryinternationalgroup.com\/blog\/golf-carts-to-island-divorces-10-notorious-tax-loopholes\/","title":{"rendered":"Golf Carts to Island Divorces: 10 Notorious Tax Loopholes"},"content":{"rendered":"

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I was reading Bloomberg and came across this great article.\u00a0 I can remember reading about all the clever things people would do to avoid paying taxes and then discovering the notorious words “phantom income”. Oh and by the way, let’s all wish the IRS a happy birthday as they turn 150 on July 1st.<\/p>\n

First a lesson in history about the IRS<\/p>\n

In July 1863, during the Civil War, President Abraham Lincoln and Congress created the office of Commissioner of Internal Revenue and enacted a temporary income tax to pay war expenses (see Revenue Act of 1862). The position of Commissioner exists today as the head of the Internal Revenue Service.<\/p>\n

The Revenue Act of 1862 was passed as an emergency and temporary war-time tax. It copied a relatively new British system of income taxation, instead of trade and property taxation. The first income tax was passed in 1861:<\/p>\n