Practice management

Mitch McConnell, the Senate minority leader who has stayed largely outside the U.S. budget fight this year, will be thrust into prominence just five days before the deadline for tax increases and spending cuts.

The IRS has modified its Voluntary Classification Settlement Program, which lets employers change the tax treatment of their employees.

Time is running out for U.S. lawmakers and President Barack Obama to agree on a budget deal by year end to avoid triggering more than $600 billion in tax increases and spending cuts, Sen. Joseph Lieberman said on Sunday.

In the face of major uncertainty regarding the upcoming tax season, Jeff Gramlich, president of tax software developer CCH Small Firm Services, is urging tax preparers to get in touch and stay in touch with their clients.

The U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York earlier this week charged three current and former client advisors at Swiss bank Zuercher Kantonalbank with conspiring with at least 180 U.S. taxpayers and others to hide more than $420 million in offshore accounts from the Internal Revenue Service.

(Bloomberg) -- House Republican leaders canceled a planned vote on Thursday night on Speaker John Boehner's plan to allow higher tax rates for annual income above $1 million, throwing already-stalled budget talks deeper into turmoil.

Professional tax return preparers must renew their PTINs to prepare returns in 2013, the IRS said in a reminder to preparers. Current PTINs expire December 31.

The Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration released two reports related to the Internal Revenue Service’s Customer Account Data Engine 2 Program, suggesting that while the system has begun processing tax returns, there are still significant areas where improvement is necessary.

House Republicans plan a vote late Thursday on a measure that would have been hard to imagine before the November 6 election -- a tax increase for top earners, which they previously labeled as job-killing class warfare.

A dose of this week’s office moves, tools, industry reports and charity updates.

IRS Acting Commissioner Steven T. Miller warned Congress on Wednesday that if lawmakers fail to extend the traditional alternative minimum tax patch, up to 100 million American taxpayers could be affected, and most taxpayers might not be able to file their tax returns until late March 2013 or later.

Payroll service provider Paychex has provided a list of five tax benefits that small businesses, and their accountants, should consider before the end of the year.

CCH has introduced a new tax planning tool to help tax advisors and their clients keep a step ahead of the fiscal cliff negotiations in Congress and the White House.

A pair of lawmakers have introduced a bipartisan bill in the House to end a 78-year-old tax provision that includes dividends from controlled foreign corporations in personal holding company income.

Effective end-of-year letters and other communication with tax prep clients are more than reminders that those clients should hire you to do 2012 returns.

Speaker of the House John Boehner, R-Ohio, said Tuesday that House Republicans would introduce a bill to raise tax rates for millionaires as a “Plan B” in case his negotiations with President Obama on averting the fiscal cliff fail to produce an agreement.

Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott said the state is investigating a fraudulent tax return scheme and warned East Texas residents to avoid recruiters from Syam Tax Services LLC.

President Barack Obama lowered his tax revenue demand by $200 billion and offered to start tax rate increases at $400,000 in income instead of $250,000, moving closer to a budget deal with House Speaker John Boehner.

The Internal Revenue Service has published amended temporary Repair vs. Capitalization regulations to incorporate the changes announced in the recent Notice 2012-73.

The Internal Revenue Service said its Central Authorization File system, which helps power its Transcript Delivery Service and Disclosure Authorizations systems, will be unavailable from December 26 through January 2.