Tax practice

The Internal Revenue Service and the Free File Alliance, have signed a one-year extension of their partnership to makes free tax software available to taxpayers.

Credit Suisse AG, which pleaded guilty Monday to helping Americans evade taxes, has so far avoided identifying thousands of customers who cheated the Internal Revenue Service. Instead, it promised to point investigators in the right direction.

The recently released discussion draft of the Tax Reform Act of 2014 by the House Ways and Means Committee is intended to simplify the existing tax code, make it fairer to taxpayers and strengthen the U.S. economy by lowering tax rates.

A new report from the advocacy group Citizens for Tax Justice finds that 301 Fortune 500 companies hold a combined $2 trillion offshore, collectively avoiding $550 billion in U.S. corporate income taxes, while a contrasting report from the Tax Foundation found that U.S. multinational corporations reported paying more than $128 billion in corporate taxes to foreign countries on $470 billion of taxable income in 2010—an effective rate of 27.2 percent before also paying U.S. taxes.

The economic benefits of the income exclusion for U.S. citizens working abroad are uncertain, according to a new government report.

Rep. Jim Renacci, R-Ohio, a CPA, has introduced a bipartisan bill to bring more accountability and transparency to the federal government’s financial statements by making the Federal Accounting Standards Advisory Board more independent.

The form for reporting foreign bank and financial accounts, or FBAR, must be filed by June 30 through the BSA E-Filing System, the IRS is reminding taxpayers.

The Third Circuit Court of Appeals has affirmed the Tax Court on an appeal arising out of nine consolidated cases regarding the tax implications of an S Corporation’s election to treat its subsidiary as a qualified subchapter S subsidiary, or Qsub, under Section 1361 of the Tax Code.

Democrats in the House and Senate introduced legislation Tuesday to tighten the restrictions on corporate tax inversions, limiting the ability of U.S.-based companies to avoid U.S. taxes by combining with a smaller foreign business and moving their tax domicile overseas.

The Internal Revenue Service needs to better adhere to requirements to justify and document noncompetitive contract awards, according to a new report.

Credit Suisse AG agreed to pay $2.6 billion in penalties and pleaded guilty to helping Americans cheat on their taxes, making it the first global bank in a decade to admit to a crime in a U.S. courtroom.

The IRS is offering tax relief to victims of severe storm, winds and flooding that affected parts of Florida in late April.

A couple of our favorite recent tax fraud cases.

Credit Suisse Group AG is close to reaching an agreement to plead guilty and pay about $2.5 billion to the U.S. Justice Department and regulators to resolve investigations into whether it helped Americans evade taxes, three people familiar with the matter said.

Senate Republicans blocked a package of more than $80 billion in tax cuts, killing for now a measure that would provide incentives for corporate research and wind energy.

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

The summer months are typically the time that CPAs fall out of touch with their clients. Some may send out or email one or two newsletters, but most taxpayers and preparers have thoughts that are far from next year’s taxes.

The Internal Revenue Service has begun accepting applications once again for its Low Income Taxpayer Clinic grants.

Nearly half the tax returns on which individuals claimed tax deductions for alimony payments did not match up with their former spouse’s tax returns, showing a total “alimony gap” of over $2.3 billion in 2010, according to a new government report.

Real estate investment trusts were originally created to permit tax-efficient public investment in real estate, but REITs have also found wide use as private vehicles.