Tax practice

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

The Supreme Court has held that a taxpayer has a right to conduct an examination of Internal Revenue Service officials regarding their reasons for issuing a summons when he points to specific facts or circumstances plausibly raising an inference of bad faith.

Several due dates for those with offshore accounts are approaching, with far-reaching consequences for those who don’t comply.

The Internal Revenue Service generally took reasonable steps to plan for the required sequestration spending cuts in its fiscal year 2013 budget, although it needed to cut back on staffing for taxpayer service, collections and enforcement activity, according to a new government report.

Supreme Court overturns an appeals court opinion that would have allowed taxpayers to examine the IRS agents who summon them to find out if they have improper motives.

The House Judiciary Committee has approved legislation by a wide margin that would prohibit states from taxing Internet access.

The Internal Revenue Service needs to improve its processes for disposing of unneeded computers, printers and servers, according to a new government report.

The Internal Revenue Service said Wednesday it would make major changes in its offshore voluntary compliance programs to provide new options to help both taxpayers residing overseas and those residing in the United States.

Congressional Republicans said Tuesday that the Internal Revenue Service has lost emails from six other officials besides Lois Lerner, the former director of the IRS’s Exempt Organizations unit.

Congressional Republicans are demanding answers from the Internal Revenue Service after the agency lost more than two years of e-mails requested by lawmakers.

What’s greasing the wheels for the rise in mergers by U.S. companies? The tax man.

The international Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development has released a new report suggesting a number of reforms to strengthen the U.S. economic recovery, including tax reform.

Medtronic Inc., the globe-spanning medical device maker founded in a Minneapolis garage in 1949, is poised to become the biggest company yet to escape the U.S. tax system by shifting its incorporation abroad.

The Internal Revenue Service claims to have lost two years’ worth of email messages between Lois Lerner, the former director of the Exempt Organizations unit who is facing contempt of Congress charges, and correspondents outside the agency.

This week, the Internal Revenue Service adopted a “Taxpayer Bill of Rights” that takes some of the existing rights that are already part of the Tax Code and groups them into 10 broad categories, making them more visible and supposedly a little easier for taxpayers to find.

A unanimous Supreme Court has held that the funds in an inherited IRA do not qualify for exemption in bankruptcy because they do not share the same characteristics as “retirement funds” that traditional IRAs have.

The Internal Revenue Service is being asked to do more to crack down on tax noncompliance by partnerships and S corporations, including requiring more of them to file their tax returns electronically.

A Florida accountant has been arrested and accused of imprisoning three prostitutes in his home, raping the women, acting as a pimp and providing them with drugs.

Sen. Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, the former chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, is warning that tax season could be delayed next year if approval of tax extenders legislation is put off until after the mid-term elections in November.

Some of our favorite recent tax fraud cases.