Roger Russell

Registration, testing and continuing education are at the core of the requirements proposed by the Internal Revenue Service in response to calls for greater oversight of paid tax preparers.

Economic uncertainty, coupled with the possibility of higher tax rates, has driven taxpayers to seek more face time with their accountants.

The prospect of the enactment of a value-added tax in the United States is getting closer – five years and counting, according to a Tax Governance Institute survey.

It’s getting near the end of the year, and ’tis the season to be compiling lists.

Although I wasn’t born with a silver spoon in my mouth, and I would have to get very lucky very soon to be concerned with the estate tax rate, it has always seemed an unfair proposition to tax a person or business when it is most vulnerable.

A letter to IRS Commissioner Douglas Shulman may hold the key to the shape of the recommendations to be proposed before the end of the year on tax preparer registration.

Congress has passed a bill on unemployment that would require electronic filing by all return preparers “except those who neither prepare nor reasonably expect to prepare ten or more individual income tax returns in a calendar year.” The measure is effective for returns prepared after Dec. 31, 2010.

If someone said to me a decade ago that the ideas that tax planners use, some on a daily basis, might be violating a patent, I would have dismissed it as crazy talk.

For those who question the relationship between shortsighted tax policy and the economy, consider the possible consequences of taxing carried interest.

There continue to be rumblings that Congress may repeal the LIFO accounting method for inventory.

Among the revenue proposals detailed in the administration’s fiscal 2010 budget are some provisions that might negatively affect small businesses and tax preparers. The American Institute of CPAs has weighed in on a number of these, including the codification of the economic substance doctrine, information reporting on payments to corporations, increasing the level of the information penalties, and expanding the requirement for electronic filing by return preparers.

With trillion-dollar deficits, cap-and-trade and nationalized health care on the horizon, the issues involving the possible registering and licensing of tax preparers seem trivial. Yet the ability to fund the deficits and pay for a nationalized health care system ultimately depends on the ability of the federal government to collect tax.

New York’s new accountancy reform law, which goes into effect July 26, 2009, broadens the definition of the scope of practice of public accountancy to include all professional services provided by a CPA.

Washington, D.C. - Billions of dollars in tax credits are being provided to Individual Taxpayer Identification Number filers without adequate verification of eligibility, according to a report from the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration.

Proposed legislation that was written initially to target hedge fund managers could impact a much larger array of partnerships in areas such as real estate.

Providers unveil new online tax research apps

Washington, D.C. - During a recent hearing of the House Small Business Committee, lawmakers questioned the Internal Revenue Service as to why small business audits are on the rise as corporate audits fall, and urged them to do more to help entrepreneurs struggling to comply with the complex tax system.

Billions of dollars in tax credits are being provided toIndividual Taxpayer Identification Number filers without adequate verificationof eligibility, according to the Treasury Inspector General for TaxAdministration.