Tax practice

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.

Some of our favorite recent tax fraud cases.

The Tax & Accounting business of Thomson Reuters has released an integrated Federal Depreciation Handbook and Calculator for CPA firms and corporate tax professionals.

The Internal Revenue Service anticipates that nearly 5 million taxpayers will amend their returns by filing Form 1040X this year.

As a tax preparation business owner for more than 30 years, Chuck McCabe considers his success due in part to being proactive in structuring his business policies and procedures.

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

National Tax Education is planning to host a series of continuing professional education courses for tax professionals in June and July in Chicago.

More than 100 New Hampshire physicians and health care providers have been reportedly victimized by tax fraud, and U.S. Senator Jeanne Shaheen, D-N.H., is urging federal officials to investigate.

Five defendants from around the country have been indicted by a federal grand jury in Erie, Pa., on charges of conspiracy to commit wire fraud and aggravated identity theft in a scheme in which the Internal Revenue Service paid out approximately $10 million in tax refunds.

The Internal Revenue Service said Wednesday it is taking new steps to fix the HeartBleed bug that was recently identified on sites across the Internet.

Now that the compliance deadlines for the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act, or FATCA, are in sight, foreign banks and other financial institutions are finally getting their systems in order, even though there are still some holes in what the Treasury Department and the Internal Revenue Service are providing.