Tax practice

Lois Lerner, the mid-level Internal Revenue Service official at the center of a controversy over the agency’s scrutiny of small-government groups, will invoke her constitutional right not to testify before Congress, according to a letter from her lawyer.

A group of CPAs headed to Capitol Hill yesterday in what has become an annual ritual as they pressed lawmakers to deal with the many issues that accountants and their clients are forced to wrestle with on a daily basis, including taxes and regulations.

Douglas Shulman, the former commissioner of the Internal Revenue Service, said he was “dismayed” and “saddened” to learn that IRS employees had singled out small-government groups for tougher scrutiny.

Following the massive tornado in Oklahoma, the IRS has provided tax relief to individuals and businesses affected by this and other severe storms occurring in parts of that state.

The Supreme Court, in a unanimous decision, has held that a one-time U.K. windfall tax paid by the subsidiary of a U.S. corporation is creditable against U.S. income tax.

Updated statistics from the IRS show continued growth in e-filing of returns.

A trio of lawmakers in Congress have introduced a bill in the House that would modify the definition of fiduciary under the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 to make clear that appraisers of employee stock ownership plans are not fiduciaries under ERISA.

Apple Inc. Chief Executive Officer Tim Cook will face off against U.S. senators leveling accusations the iPhone maker has created a web of offshore entities to avoid paying billions of dollars in U.S. taxes.

The Internal Revenue Service’s Large Business & International division and its Wage and Investment division have teamed up to create a discovery tool for taxpayers with international filing requirements.

The Internal Revenue Service said it would refund fees collected for registered tax return preparer tests that were canceled due to a court injunction.

Steven Miller, who is being forced out as acting commissioner of the Internal Revenue Service, said the agency has learned from its mistakes while denying that it had targeted nonprofit groups for review because of their political views.

The advocacy group Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington is continuing to press ahead with a lawsuit against the Internal Revenue Service to force it to reject tax exemptions from political groups, despite a high-profile scandal over improper screening of Tea Party and other conservative groups.

Despite other hearings being held in Washington this week of a more political nature, it’s nice to know that the Ways and Means Committee is continuing to search for ways to make life easier for small businesses, at least as far as complying with the Tax Code. A hearing was held by the Subcommittee on Select Revenue Measures on Wednesday, May 15, on the Ways and Means Small Business Tax Reform Discussion Draft.

(Bloomberg) President Barack Obama appointed Daniel Werfel, controller of the White House budget office, as acting commissioner of the Internal Revenue Service.

President Obama announced during a press conference late Wednesday afternoon that he had asked for and received the resignation of Acting IRS Commissioner Steven T. Miller, over the recently revealed news that the agency had been targeting for extra scrutiny the applications of Tea Party and similar groups for tax-exempt status.

The IRS has revealed additional details about what may be the first round of sequester-related the closures planned for May 24, June 14, July 5, July 22 and August 30 of this year.

The U.S. budget deficit will shrink by the end of fiscal 2013 to $642 billion, the smallest shortfall in five years, according to the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office.

Victims of severe storms, straight-line winds, and flooding that began on April 16 in parts of Illinois may qualify for tax relief.

According to a newly released report, a Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration audit found that “ineffective management” had led the Internal Revenue Service to use “inappropriate criteria” to identify applications for tax-exempt status for review, leading to Tea Party and similar organizations receiving undue scrutiny and delays in their applications.

Attorney General Eric Holder ordered a criminal investigation into the Internal Revenue Service’s targeting of small-government advocacy groups for extra scrutiny.