Tax practice

The largest U.S.-based companies added $206 billion to their stockpiles of offshore profits last year, parking earnings in low-tax countries until Congress gives them a reason not to.

The Internal Revenue Service has revised its guidance on electronic signatures, with updated information on the currently acceptable electronic signature methods, identity verification requirements and electronic record requirements.

The American Institute of CPAs has written a letter to the Internal Revenue Service, asking the agency to postpone the effective dates for cost basis reporting for options and debt instruments.

Republicans in Congress want to add language to a U.S. aid plan for Ukraine that would block a proposed IRS rule curbing political activity by tax-exempt groups, Senator Bob Corker said Tuesday.

A former banker at a Credit Suisse Group AG unit pleaded guilty to helping American clients evade taxes, increasing pressure on the bank amid a U.S. probe of how it helped wealthy Americans cheat the Internal Revenue Service.

Many individual tax returns select a third-party designee, but even though this designation is widely used, its scope is often misunderstood.

Lois Lerner, who oversaw the Internal Revenue Service’s scrutiny of Tea Party groups, was looking for someone from every branch of government to help resolve the issue that eventually cost her job.

Policy makers on both sides of the partisan divide, from Treasury Secretary Jacob J. Lew to Mitt Romney’s economic adviser Glenn Hubbard, favor expanding the Earned Income Tax Credit. This rare harmony holds the potential to reshape the debate on bridging the growing opportunity gap.

The Internal Revenue Service is seeking civic-minded volunteers to serve on the Taxpayer Advocacy Panel, a federal advisory committee that listens to taxpayers, identifies major taxpayer concerns and makes recommendations for improving IRS services.

H&R Block has launched a series of YouTube music videos featuring various musicians singing about the excitement of getting a tax refund.

House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Dave Camp, R-Mich., said that after months of discussions with the Internal Revenue Service on producing documents pertaining to the committee’s investigation of the IRS scrutiny of political groups and subsequent issuance of 501(c)(4) rulemaking, the IRS will turn over emails and documents from the former head of the IRS’s Exempt Organizations unit, Lois Lerner, to him.

The owner of Perez Enterprises, a commercial tax preparation business located in Paterson, N.J., was sentenced Thursday to 40 months in prison for filing false tax returns and aggravated identity theft.

The Internal Revenue Service reminded home-based businesses and their tax preparers Friday about a new simplified option for claiming the home office deduction that is available for the first time this year, allowing home businesses to deduct up to $1,500 from their taxes.

Thousands of Credit Suisse Group AG’s U.S. clients still don’t know whether tax authorities will learn their identities as prosecutors work to conclude a three-year probe of how the bank helped them evade taxes.

Some of our favorite recent tax fraud cases.

There weren’t a lot of surprises in the President’s Budget, set at $3.9 trillion for fiscal year 2015, which was released on March 4.

The Internal Revenue Service reported Thursday that more than 48 million tax refunds had been issued by the end of February, a 5.6 percent increase compared to the same period last year, with the size of the average tax refund also up.

The Internal Revenue Service has created a new video for YouTube that aims to provide useful tax tips for married same-sex couples.

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

House Speaker John Boehner said an IRS official should be held in contempt if she continues to refuse to testify on the agency’s scrutiny of Tea Party groups.