Tax planning

If you thought that the tax legislation passed at the end of 2007 — both the Alternative Minimum Tax relief legislation and the mortgage debt forgiveness relief legislation — finally resolved the issues that would have to be addressed for the 2007 tax return filing season, you were mistaken. Congress was not done creating issues that would impact those returns. The Economic Stimulus Act of 2008, signed by President Bush on Feb. 13, 2008, has created additional issues for 2007 return filers.Most of the direct impact will be on lower-income individuals — individuals who are not normally required to file tax returns but who may wish to do so in order to qualify to receive a rebate check authorized under the new legislation.

A federal judge has dismissed major parts of a class-action lawsuit brought against tax prep chain Jackson Hewitt and a large group of its franchisees.

This year’s tax return filing season appears to be proceeding smoothly, despite the initial confusion that was generated by the seemingly annual last-minute tax legislation.Included in that flurry of new guidelines were the Tax Increase Prevention Act of 2007, which passed in December and included an Alternative Minimum Tax patch for the year that required some fine-tuning of the Internal Revenue Service’s computers to process returns that might be subject to the AMT; and the Mortgage Forgiveness Debt Relief Act of 2007, which also passed in December, and excluded mortgage debt forgiveness for homeowners whose home at foreclosure sold for less than the outstanding mortgage, if a portion of the unpaid debt was forgiven. In total, more than 10 forms this season were affected by the AMT patch.

Much of the election-year criticism of hedge funds misses the point when it focuses on the claim that hedge fund operators get unfair tax breaks, experts say.There is abuse in the current Tax Code when it comes to hedge funds, but it affects the investors, according to Alan Dlugash, a tax partner at New York-based CPA and business advisory firm Marks Paneth & Shron. They’re often subjected to taxes that wipe out nearly all — or more than all — of the income that they made from the fund, he observed.

The Internal Revenue Service has begun posting tax advice videos on YouTube in an effort to get the word out about tax rebates and scams.

A report by the Treasury Department's inspector general faults the Internal Revenue Service for its management of taxpayer records.

Presidential hopeful Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., has released seven years of tax returns, putting added pressure on rival Sen. Hillary Clinton, D-N.Y., to release her tax returns.

The Internal Revenue Service plans to open up hundreds of locations on Saturday, March 29, to provide advice to people who are eligible to receive an economic stimulus payment but who normally do not file tax returns.

Spammers have begun sending e-mail messages purporting to come from TurboTax customer support encouraging recipients to download an updated version of the software from a fake Web site.

The Internal Revenue Service has come out with its annual list of tax scams for this season, and it contains some alarming items.

Former KPMG tax partner Robert Pfaff has been indicted on new charges alleging he participated in a tax shelter scheme involving the Big Four firm and a company located in Saipan in the Northern Mariana Islands.

The American Institute of CPAs said its members have been answering tax questions for USA Today as part of an annual effort to provide online tax assistance to readers.

The AICPA said it has sent a letter to the Internal Revenue Service urging its agents to be aware of "scriveners' errors," or unintentional mistakes, in the drafting of employee benefit plans.

The Internal Revenue Service said it has approximately $1.2 billion in unclaimed refunds waiting for 1.3 million people who did not file federal income tax returns for 2004, but they need to file by April 15, 2008, to claim the money.

Eight employees of the Monongalia County, W.Va., sheriff's department tax office are sharing the proceeds of a Powerball lottery ticket worth $273.6 million.

CCH has released Worldwide Tax Rates and Answers: Central and Eastern Europe, an online tax compliance and research product for companies doing business in those parts of the world.

Gilman Ciocia's personal tax team is giving away tickets to New York Mets games as part of a contest it is holding for the second year in a row.

A federal judge has ruled against some of the main provisions of a New Jersey law restricting interest rates and fees that can be charged on tax refund anticipation loans, even though the annual percentage rates average 115 percent.

There are a lot of very good research tools on the market. But what's available for the small practitioner who needs less than high-powered products?

Sen. Joseph Lieberman, I.-Conn., has written a letter to the Internal Revenue Service asking for an explanation of its investigation of a speech by Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., at the United Church of Christ.