Tax practice

The Internal Revenue Service has completed work on 91 of 132 applications for tax-exempt status from politically oriented groups and approved 70 of them, the agency’s acting commissioner said.

A married couple from Iowa and a Nevada accountant have been charged with conspiring to defraud the IRS of over $700,000 through a scheme in which they allegedly used nominee corporations and nominee bank accounts to hide their income and other assets.

The IRS Chief Counsel plans to take steps to minimize the risk of outside influence by tax practitioners on its letter rulings, according to a new report from the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration.

Republican leaders of the House Judiciary Committee released a set of principles Wednesday for taxing Internet sales, offering the first tentative move toward compromising on legislation passed by the Senate earlier this year that has not yet advanced in the House.

Kat Morgan will check a “married” box on her federal tax return next year for the first time since her 2009 wedding, now that the Internal Revenue Service will recognize same-sex marriages no matter where couples live.

Taxpayers will receive some tax relief next year, thanks to the Internal Revenue Service’s inflation-adjusted indexing provided under the Tax Code, according to estimates from CCH.

The Internal Revenue Service has issued new guidance and streamlined procedures for spouses who are seeking equitable relief from joint income tax liability.

The Internal Revenue Service said Tuesday that its Office of Professional Responsibility has prevailed in seeking the disbarment of David O. Christensen after he was convicted of theft for misappropriating funds as the conservator of his daughter’s trust account. Christensen’s CPA licenses in Washington and Oregon had been revoked previously as a result of his conviction.

Tax enforcement revenue collected by the Internal Revenue Service has declined for the second straight year, according to a new report publicly released Tuesday by the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration.

The IRS is providing tax relief to individual and business taxpayers impacted by severe storms, flooding, landslides and mudslides in Colorado.

The IRS issued the final Tangible Property Repair Regulations for Sections 162(a) and 263(a) last Friday, modifying and superseding the temporary regulations that were issued on Dec. 23, 2011.

The Internal Revenue Service’s estimate of the so-called “Tax Gap,” the difference between taxes owed and taxes paid voluntarily and on time, needs to be more accurate, reliable, comprehensive and timely, according to a new government report released to the public Monday by the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration.

Thomson Reuters has released the FATCA Essentials library as part of its Checkpoint online research service, providing information on the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act.

The Internal Revenue Service is providing guidance on the application of the market reform provisions of the Affordable Care Act to health care arrangements such as health reimbursement arrangements, employer payment plans and flexible spending accounts.

The Internal Revenue Service said Friday that approximately 4,000 plan sponsors received erroneous penalty notices.

As tax reform efforts resume in Washington this month, a new survey finds that over 70 percent of business tax professionals believe a detailed tax reform plan will begin to be worked on by the House Ways and Means Committee this year, and nearly 50 percent of the respondents think a tax reform plan will be put forward in the Senate.

A former Internal Revenue Service manager has been sentenced to a year in prison after she was convicted of accessing IRS computers on behalf of a tax business that she operated on the side.

Rahn & Bodmer Co., the Swiss private bank established by silk traders in 1750, said it’s cooperating with a U.S. Department of Justice probe into cross-border accounts of American clients.

Between October 2011 and September 2012, the Internal Revenue Service investigated 13 complaints of IRS personnel who directly contacted taxpayers instead of going through their designated representatives, but IRS managers disciplined or counseled only two of the employees because of their actions.

The Congressional Budget Office is seeing a $400 billion reduction in the federal government’s budget deficit for the current fiscal year, thanks to increased tax revenues due largely to the expiration of the payroll tax cut.