Tax planning

The Internal Revenue Service has seen a 60 percent increase so far this year in electronic filing of tax returns by small businesses and large corporations.

Three Democratic congressmen have announced plans to draft legislation that would impose a war surtax to pay for operations in Iraq as a way to demonstrate their opposition to the war.

Tax technology vendor Vertex said it planned a major hiring initiative that would double the size of its consulting group over the next six months.

A report by the Treasury Department's inspector general raised concerns about the screening done by the Internal Revenue Service of electronic filing providers.

CCH has introduced CorpSystem, a new line of software for corporate professionals who do tax and accounting work.

Sen. Carl Levin, D-Mich., has proposed a bill that would change the tax treatment of corporate stock option deductions.

The Internal Revenue Service has issued a new set of allowable living expense standards that it will use to determine the ability of a taxpayer to pay a delinquent tax liability.

The Justice Department said it has resolved lawsuits against several corporations that owned Jackson Hewitt franchises, with the companies agreeing to be barred from tax preparation after the DOJ found a pattern of fraud.

Rep. John Dingell, D-Mich., has proposed a 50-cent tax on each gallon of gas in an effort to limit carbon emissions.

The U.S. Supreme Court has agreed to consider two tax cases, one arising out of a criminal case and the other a business case.

A federal judge here has permanently barred a tax preparer from preparing tax returns for others.

CCH predicted that the indexing of many features of the Tax Code to adjust for inflation will bring taxpayers some relief next year as the company released its 2008 tax rate projections.

LexisNexis introduced LexisNexis Tax Advisor-Federal Code, containing federal tax content organized from a Tax Code perspective.

The Internal Revenue Service has issued proposed regulations governing patents on tax strategies and advice as a bill works its way through Congress outlawing such patents.

The Treasury Department is upgrading its Electronic Federal Tax Payment System while phasing out some of its older systems.

Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson and Commerce Secretary Carlos Gutierrez called on the Senate to pass a permanent moratorium on taxes for Internet access and electronic commerce.

The Internal Revenue Service has issued regulations governing practice before the agency.

A church is demanding a correction and an apology from the Internal Revenue Service after the IRS closed a two-year examination of its tax-exempt status that had been prompted by a guest sermon delivered on the eve of the 2004 presidential election.

The Internal Revenue Service may start adjusting tax penalties for inflation to make sure the penalties retain their bite.

The Internal Revenue Service has been called on to develop federal licensing requirements for all paid tax return preparers - an approach that would involve potentially controversial competency rankings to help taxpayers to identify and select tax professionals based on their level of expertise.The proposal was recently placed on the table by the IRS's own Taxpayer Advocacy Panel as part of a laundry list of recommendations for improvements at the tax service.