Tax practice

Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton on Wednesday urged Congress to take action against companies that avoid taxes by shifting their debt to American soil while moving profit overseas, a technique known as earnings stripping, and said that if they don’t, the Treasury Department should crack down with new rules.

Royal Bank of Scotland Group Plc agreed to pay 23.8 million euros ($26 million) to settle allegations from German prosecutors that its Swiss Coutts & Co. Ltd. private bank helped some clients evade tax.

Congressional leaders are pushing to reach a deal on a must-pass U.S. government spending bill as a Friday deadline nears to avoid a federal shutdown, even as they concede that lawmakers may have to work into the weekend and beyond.

As 2015 comes to a close, businesses are once again facing uncertainty as Congress has yet to act on a host of important provisions that expired at the end of 2014.

The Internal Revenue Service has begun a new program, the Early Interaction Initiative, to more quickly identify employers who are falling behind on their payroll or employment taxes and help them get caught up on their payment and reporting responsibilities.

Nonprofits are expressing concern about proposed regulations from the Internal Revenue Service and the Treasury Department that could give charities the option of providing Social Security numbers of donors who contribute more than $250 to their organizations.

The American Institute of CPAs is objecting to a bill that was introduced in the House giving the Internal Revenue Service the statutory authority to regulate tax return preparers.

The Internal Revenue Service has extended its hold on certain tax refunds for returns filed by nonresident aliens and other foreign taxpayers on Form 1040NR beyond the usual 180-day limit in order to give extra scrutiny to the refund claims, leaving many undocumented immigrant workers waiting up to 360 days to get the tax refunds they filed this year.

Some of our favorite recent tax fraud cases.

Victims of the severe storms and flooding in October in parts of Texas may qualify for tax relief from the IRS.

Congress has passed highway-funding legislation that includes two tax provisions that would allow the State Department to revoke the passports of long-term tax delinquents who owe more than $50,000 in tax debts and revive a program requiring the IRS to hire private debt collection agencies.

As 2015 comes to a close, taxpayers are once again facing uncertainty as Congress has yet to act on a host of important provisions that expired at the end of 2014.

The Internal Revenue Service is letting former students of a now-defunct for-profit college chain, Corinthian Colleges, to avoid including their forgiven student loan debts within gross income.

Highlights of some of our favorite tax-related blogs from the past week.

The Internal Revenue Service plans to make improvements in the way it assists victims of tax-related identity theft after a new government report says further improvements are needed.

The Internal Revenue Service’s Criminal Investigation unit released its annual report Thursday, as the group contends with a shrinking budget and recent controversy over its use of cell phone tracking technology.

Tax cheats can breathe a little easier. The gun-toting Internal Revenue Service investigators who send felons to prison are retiring in droves and there’s no one to replace them.

Most families aren’t tax professionals, and that’s why they come to you in the first place.

Two Democrats in Congress have introduced a bill in the House and Senate to protect taxpayer rights and regulate tax preparers.

Check out the digital edition of the December 2015 issue of Accounting Today.