Tax practice

The Internal Revenue Service needs to improve its criminal fraud referral process as well as the timeliness of its evaluation process for referring cases of tax fraud for criminal prosecution, according to a new government report.

Leaders of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee continued their battle over the release of transcripts of interviews with officials from the Internal Revenue Service’s Exempt Organizations division amid claims of what the transcripts indicate about White House involvement in the targeting of Tea Party and other conservative groups.

The RTRP program could serve as the base of a new voluntary credential.

World leaders at the G8 Summit meeting in Lough Erne, Northern Ireland, issued a declaration Tuesday calling for countries to share tax information and increase transparency to discourage tax evasion, and President Obama released an action plan for identifying actual company ownership.

Congressman Chaka Fattah, D-Pa., a senior member of the House Appropriations Committee, has introduced legislation that would direct the Treasury Department to issue a legislative proposal to Congress concerning the viability of replacing the current income tax with a consumption tax.

In honor of Small Business Week, the IRS is offering two webinars for small-business owners.

The Internal Revenue Service plans to develop more guidance and training materials to inform taxpayers and tax preparers of the tax compliance risks associated with using virtual currencies like Bitcoin and “Linden dollars.”

The International Consortium of Investigative Journalists created a database of users of international tax havens over the weekend, and the group reported Monday that database received 2 million page views in its first 24 hours of operation.

Sen. Rob Portman, R-Ohio, and Rep. Charles Boustany, R-La., have introduced legislation aimed at allowing Enrolled Agents to present themselves as such and tout their credential wherever they practice.

The National Society of Accountants has met with officials at the Internal Revenue Service to try to persuade the IRS not to close down its Disclosure Authorization and Electronic Account Resolution e-Services.

Practitioners who have clients with overseas accounts should alert them now that the FBAR (Foreign Bank and Financial Accounts Report) form must be received by the Department of Treasury no later than June 28 this year. Although the actual due date is June 30, this year it falls on a Sunday and there is no extension of the due date when it falls on a weekend.

The Internal Revenue Service has finalized the regulations for the 10 percent excise tax on indoor tanning services that was included as part of the health care reform law.

The House Ways and Means Committee held a hearing Thursday to examine corporate tax reform and the impact of offshore tax havens on base erosion and profit shifting by multinationals.

The Internal Revenue Service has taken steps to correct problems with its oversight of applications for Individual Taxpayer Identification Numbers, or ITINs, but more improvements in the program are still needed, according to a new government report.

Leaders of the House Energy and Commerce Committee have sent a letter to Internal Revenue Service acting chief Daniel Werfel requesting information about a March 2011 IRS search and seizure of as many as 60 million medical records from a California health care provider.

The Internal Revenue Service is not always properly monitoring or establishing the partial payment installment agreements it enters into with taxpayers, according to a new government report.

Senators Roy Blunt, R-Mo., and Jay Rockefeller, D-W.Va., have introduced a bipartisan bill to make the New Markets Tax Credit program permanent and increase its annual allocation.

The Internal Revenue Service filmed a “Mad Men”-themed continuing professional education video last year featuring an actor patterned after the Don Draper character in the popular AMC cable TV series.

The Swiss and U.S. governments have signed a memorandum of understanding on interpretations of their agreement on implementing the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act, or FATCA.

Bloomberg BNA has begun a joint initiative with Tax Materials, the producers of the tax reference book series TheTaxBook, to include content from TheTaxBook in Tax Prep Guides that will be offered as part of Bloomberg BNA’s Tax Practice Series.