Roger Russell

It’s doubtful whether the tax changes proposed by the President in his speech on Wednesday would generate much of a dent in the deficit, even if they were to be accepted by Congress.

It’s easy to understand the IRS Small Business/Self-Employed Division’s rollout of its program to request QuickBooks or Peachtree files from small business taxpayers under examination.

Any move on tax reform should take into consideration what the European Union and various countries are doing with their tax systems, observed David Lifson, past president of the New York State Society of CPAs and a tax partner at Crowe Horwath.

It’s comforting to know that tax reform is proceeding apace on several different fronts.

Practitioners who represent taxpayers with unreported offshore accounts should urge them to come forward and assist them under the new voluntary disclosure initiative for a number of reasons.

Tax reform for business isn’t just about lowering the corporate tax rate. That’s what Patricia Thompson, chair of the AICPA’s Tax Executive Committee, told the House Ways and Means Subcommittee on Select Revenue Measures yesterday.

Whether or not the Obama administration budget proposal to add some clarity to worker classification sees the light of day, the employee vs. independent contractor issue will surely be undergoing increased scrutiny.

We’ve been operating without a budget for the past year, and despite the budget proposal this week, it appears likely that we will continue to operate the government under a series of continuing resolutions.

Tax strategy patents have been around for more than a decade, ever since a federal appeals court in 1998 validated business method patents, including tax strategies.

The new cost basis reporting rules won’t affect this year’s returns, but they are already in effect.

The deficit reduction panel called for tax reform, as did the National Taxpayer Advocate and the House Ways and Means Committee. Now, President Obama has added his voice to the mix with his State of the Union address.

With nine out of 10 families either hiring tax preparers or purchasing tax software in order to file their taxes, it is clear that the Tax Code is too complex, too time-consuming and too costly for our families and businesses. So says Dave Camp, R-Mich., the new chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee.

Henry Bloch, the “H” in H&R Block, needs no introduction to accountants, or the millions of taxpayers whose returns have been prepared by the firm — and the industry — he spawned.

The Internal Revenue Service has been hearing a lot of concerns about its new requirements for tax preparers to electronically file tax returns.

The modern era of tax return preparer administration began on Sept. 28, 2010.

President Obama’s announcement on Monday of a compromise agreement with the Republican leadership should bring some end-of-year certainty to the tax landscape, but questions remain.

Preparers looking for a wish list of provisions for the lame duck session of Congress to pass have a number of items to consider.

If you’re like me, you habitually print out anything that you download from the Web before you start reading or working on it.

Here’s some good news for those who haven’t renewed their Preparer Tax Identification Number by the end of the year. The process to renew it will be the same beginning in January as it is now, and it takes only about 15 minutes to do online.

Whether you’re happy, sad or indifferent with the election results on Tuesday, elections do have consequences and will affect all of us. Especially tax preparers.