Tax practice

The Internet offers astounding opportunities to market your expertise and corral new clients. It also provides a staggering chance to waste time and money if you don’t know what to put on your primary Net real estate: your Web site.

Some of our favorite recent tax fraud cases.

The U.S. Treasury Department said it’s considering ways to end a “loophole” that allows hedge-fund managers to avoid taxes by routing their investments through an insurance company in low-tax countries like Bermuda.

Republicans and business allies such as House Ways and Means Chairman Dave Camp and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce say they know the way to stop companies from changing addresses to cut their tax bills: Reform the tax code.

If you sold, advised on or had anything to do with a listed transaction, you could be fined by the Internal Revenue Service under recently issued regulations.

Tax and finance executives are concerned they don’t have enough resources at their disposal to navigate a risky tax environment, according to a new survey from Ernst & Young.

A bipartisan majority of the House of Representatives comprising 233 members have signed a letter urging the House leadership to preserve the cash method of accounting for tax purposes, writing that proposals requiring a transition to the accrual method “will have a severely detrimental impact on thousands of businesses in our districts.”

Rep. Mark Pocan, D-Wis., has introduced three pieces of legislation to close tax breaks that enable U.S. multinational corporations to use so-called “inversions” in which they merge with a foreign company and move their tax domicile abroad to a low-tax country to reduce corporate taxes.

Bloomberg BNA has enhanced its Premier International Tax Library with expanded content and new tools from tax practitioners in different countries.

Internal Revenue Service commissioner John Koskinen told a congressional subcommittee about the IRS’s progress on the Affordable Care Act and the impact that tax subsidies will have next tax season.

The Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals has affirmed a Tax Court decision disallowing deductions related to a farmhouse.

The Internal Revenue Service’s Office of Professional Responsibility has released guidance under Circular 230 regarding power of attorney for tax practitioners who are employed by large corporations.

Master limited partnerships, tax-exempt companies that pay investors most of their income at the cost of added risk, are spreading in the shipping industry.

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

The Internal Revenue Service said Wednesday that more than 1 million tax payments have been processed so far this year through its new IRS Direct Pay system.

The Obama administration can make tax inversions less economically attractive to U.S. corporations and deter companies from changing their addresses, Treasury Secretary Jacob J. Lew said.

The owner of a Michigan human resource management firm was charged with filing false tax returns on behalf of his business clients.

The House has passed legislation that would toughen the penalties for criminals who engage in identity theft through stolen tax returns.

A pair of CPAs have filed a class-action complaint against the Internal Revenue Service challenging IRS regulations requiring tax practitioners to annually register and pay a fee to the agency to obtain and maintain a Preparer Tax Identification Number.

A singer known as Remy has written a tongue-in-cheek love song revolving around the Internal Revenue Service’s recent scandals involving its loss of emails from Lois Lerner, the former director of the IRS’s Exempt Organizations unit.