Michael Cohn

Georges Marciano, the co-founder of jean maker Guess?, Inc., recently lost his bid in a federal court to force the Internal Revenue Service to audit his tax returns.

Officials from the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board are heading to China later this month to meet with officials there to try to resolve the growing problems with audits of U.S.-listed Chinese companies.

U.S.-based multinational corporations and their lobbyists are pushing hard for a so-called “tax holiday” that would repatriate the earnings from their foreign subsidiaries, arguing that it would inject up to $1 trillion into the U.S. economy, but the prospects for job growth are murky at best.

At a recent hearing before the Senate Appropriations Committee, IRS Commissioner Doug Shulman heard from senators that the agency ought to provide taxpayers with its own free online tax software.

The Senate vote Tuesday on repealing the Volumetric Ethanol Excise Tax Credit failed, but it could be a sign of things to come as the tax reform debate heats up in the midst of talks to raise the debt limit.

A funny thing has been happening with the $7,500 plug-in electric vehicle tax credits that GM has been dangling before prospective buyers of its Chevrolet Volt: In many cases dealers rather than customers have been getting the tax breaks.

An agreement to raise the debt ceiling in Congress appears to be linked increasingly to a deal to cut both taxes and Medicare spending.

The American Institute of CPAs held its annual ritual this week of visiting lawmakers’ offices on Capitol Hill to press the case for tax simplification, a ban on tax patent strategies, changes in tax-filing due dates, and other legislative priorities.

The Internal Revenue Service has begun sending letters to political donors asking why they didn’t report their 2008 donations on their gift tax forms.

The Financial Accounting Standards Board appears to be once again on the slow path to convergence with International Financial Reporting Standards, but it will probably get there in the end.

The tax-related talk in Washington lately has shifted from overall tax reform to specific fixes like eliminating about $4 billion in tax breaks for major oil companies.

The eleventh-hour budget deal struck by the White House with Republican and Democratic congressional leaders to avert a government shutdown over the weekend depends to a large extent upon some accounting sleight of hand to achieve the claim of $38 billion in spending cuts.

As Washington moves closer to the brink of a federal government shutdown, the battle lines are already being set for the next budget turf war.

General Electric is a company that has long been known for innovation going back to the days of founder Thomas Alva Edison, but now some of its greatest innovations may be in the way it avoids paying corporate income taxes.

One of the dilemmas facing many accountants and tax preparers this tax season is the problem of how to account for uncertain tax positions and deal with them on the IRS’s new Schedule UTP.

State budget deficits are prompting governors to slash spending, but also shift the tax burden away from corporations.

Actor Charlie Sheen has certainly managed to keep his name in the news in recent weeks, and now that his starring role on “Two and a Half Men” appears to have come to an end, we wondered what it would be like if he took a job overseeing tax legislation and accounting standards.

A tax credit that is supposed to help poverty-stricken communities is instead being used to finance at least two luxury hotels, an antique car museum, a small theater in an upscale neighborhood, and other dubious projects, while lining the pockets of wealthy banks and investors.

The unveiling of the Obama administration’s budget this week appeared to be only the opening act for what promises to be a long-running series of episodes involving spending, taxes, and cuts to favored and not-so-favored programs.

President Obama has launched a new initiative to fund small business entrepreneurs known as Startup America, which sounds like something that might better belong on Sand Hill Road in Silicon Valley than on Pennsylvania Avenue in Washington.