Tax practice

A roundup of tax news from the previous month

What companies need to know as the IRS shifts its compliance focus

Seeing signs of movement on changing the Tax Code

The Internal Revenue Service has released proposed regulations that would increase the user fees for both offers in compromise and installment agreements for the first time since 2007.

A California businessman has pleaded guilty to conspiring to conceal bank accounts in Israel, the latest in a series of defendants who have been charged with conspiring with Israeli bankers.

A husband and wife pair of tax preparers have each been sentenced to five years in prison for filing false tax returns.

The Swiss government is urging banks to cooperate with a new program it has set up with U.S. authorities, even though it will require significant financial penalties and information sharing from banks that aided secret account holders.

The Tax Code giveth and the Tax Code taketh away. The depreciation and expensing provisions in the Tax Code allow taxpayers to recover the cost of property through an annual allowance. As a result, many businesses have taken advantage of the opportunity to write off expenses of equipment and other tangible property by making purchases toward the end of the year, driven as much by the tax advantage it gives them as by the actual need for new equipment. But many of these business owners forget that when they sell an asset, the IRS can take their depreciation allowance back, often at the highest possible tax rate. Taxpayers use depreciation to write down the cost of assets, both tangible assets like capital equipment and real property, and intangible assets such as patent costs and goodwill. But if those assets are sold at a profit, the IRS can recapture the full amount that was depreciated.

The Treasury Department and the Internal Revenue Service have ruled that same-sex couples, legally married in jurisdictions that recognize their marriages, will be treated as married for federal tax purposes.

The Tax Policy Center, has released new estimates projecting that the share of Americans paying no federal income tax will drop from fully half in 2008 and 2009 to just 43 percent this year and will continue to fall to just a third in 2024.

Amazon.com has enlisted former Solicitor General Ted Olson to file a petition with the U.S. Supreme Court to stop New York State from requiring Amazon customers to pay sales taxes on their purchases.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit in Chicago has affirmed the Tax Court, upholding the disallowance by the IRS of losses claimed by investors in a DAD (distressed asset/debt) tax shelter.

Switzerland is paving the way for its banks to settle a dispute with the U.S. over tax evasion, approving a plan after years of diplomatic wrangling.

The Internal Revenue Service has issued final regulations for the shared responsibility payment for not maintaining minimum essential coverage under the Affordable Care Act, also known as the individual mandate.

The Internal Revenue Service has issued a set of tips to help with foreign tax credit compliance.

The Internal Revenue Service plans to fix a glitch that was discovered with its system for automatically issuing tax levies that allow it to seize the assets of delinquent taxpayers.

An Omaha man has been sentenced to three years’ probation after dumping dirt from a front-end loader truck at the feet of Internal Revenue Service officers who were trying to seize his boss’s dump truck.

A pair of Democratic lawmakers in Congress announced they are introducing legislation to curb gun violence by increasing federal taxes on firearms and ammunition.

The Internal Revenue Service has chosen John Dalrymple, a former executive with the tax agency, for its No. 2 job, a position where he will oversee audits, the annual tax filing season and the tax-exempt organizations office that led to controversy this year.

The new fraud detection system that the IRS has been developing since the beginning of 2012 needs some more work to make sure that it is successfully deployed and implemented.