Tax practice

Helpful hints for exempt organizations and their advisors

Picking the best entity type is critical for your clients

A pair of senators have introduced legislation to prohibit federal workers from receiving bonuses if they aren't in good standing with their agency or the law, in response to a report from the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration that IRS employees who owed back taxes received lucrative bonuses.

Congratulations! You have made it through another beast of a busy season. You have cajoled clients and staff, put in long hours, and are beginning to forget what your family and friends look like.

Tax-exempt organizations using the calendar year as their fiscal year must file 2013 990-series information returns and notices by Thursday, May 15, and should be careful about the information they include, the IRS warned.

The founder of a Swiss trust company that U.S. prosecutors say worked with Credit Suisse Group AG to help American clients evade taxes pleaded guilty in Virginia, increasing pressure on the bank as it tries to resolve a Justice Department criminal probe.

The U.S. House Ways and Means Committee approved $310 billion of tax breaks, as Republicans defeated Democratic objections to the plan’s budgetary costs.

CCH has published a new tax briefing examining recent federal tax developments and strategies for this past tax season, and how they may affect taxpayers in future tax seasons.

The Internal Revenue Service is modifying and clarifying the regulations under Section 367(b) of the Tax Code relating to the treatment of property used to acquire parent stock or securities in certain triangular reorganizations involving foreign corporations, colloquially referred to as the “Killer B regulations,” to close loopholes in the anti-abuse rules.

The Internal Revenue Service plans to amend the regulations for the treatment of U.S. taxpayers who own passive foreign investment company stock through tax-exempt organizations.

Prospective deals by General Electric Co. and Valeant Pharmaceuticals International Inc. show how the U.S. tax code is helping drive billion-dollar mergers and acquisitions.

The House has unanimously passed the Digital Accountability and Transparency Act, also known as the DATA Act, on Monday, following Senate passage earlier this month and sending the legislation to President Obama’s desk for his signature.

The IRS has released the 2014 update to its Allowable Living Expense Standards that apply to taxpayers who need to delay full payment of delinquent taxes.

For both consumers and corporations, the lower the income, the higher the rate of tax penalties, according to new research.

State tax policies need to be updated to better address new business models such as cloud computing, as well as a change that began long ago—the nation’s shift toward a service-based economy, according to the just-published Bloomberg BNA’s 14th annual Survey of State Tax Departments.

The U.S. House of Representatives plans to vote in May to make the research tax credit permanent, the first step toward ending a 33-year lapse-and-revive cycle that has frustrated companies such as Intel Corp. and Agilent Technologies Inc.

The Internal Revenue Service has released a draft of an easier-to-use Form 1023-EZ for charities that are seeking tax-exempt status.

A tax preparer in Queens, N.Y., has been sentenced to eight and a half years in prison for stealing children’s identities and claiming them as dependents on nearly 1,000 false tax returns.

The American Institute of CPAs has written to the head of the tax-writing House Ways and Means Committee voicing strong opposition to draft legislation that would limit the use of the cash method of accounting for pass-through entities and personal service corporations.

Despite the loss of political momentum in Congress for tax reform, corporate tax leaders are still making plans in case it happens, according to a new survey.