Tax practice

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.

The Marketplace Fairness Act, which the Senate passed last week, would require e-commerce vendors to collect sales taxes not only on physical items, but also on digital goods such as ebooks and music downloads.

New York State Attorney General Eric Schneiderman and the chairmen of some key legislative committees have proposed a major overhaul of state laws governing the nonprofit sector in the first major reforms in 40 years, including improved oversight of audits by the charity's board and the hiring of independent auditors.

The acting commissioner of the Internal Revenue Service said the agency’s errors in targeting small-government groups stemmed from the lack of a “sufficient process” and weren’t the result of partisanship.

ADP is enhancing its ADP Tax Credits software to help companies capture Work Opportunity Tax Credits for hiring employees.

Usually when we hear a discussion about fraudulent transfers, it is in the context of a client who has just been sued and now wants to protect his or her assets.

The American Institute of CPAs has sent a letter to the Internal Revenue Service asking the IRS to re-evaluate some of its proposals for a safe harbor method for the home office deduction, even though the AICPA acknowledged that the method would be simpler for taxpayers to use.

President Barack Obama called it “outrageous” for the IRS to target groups promoting limited government for special attention, as a Democratic panel chairman became the latest to announce a congressional probe.

On the heels of continuing revelations about the Internal Revenue Service’s targeting of Tea Party groups for extra scrutiny in evaluating applications for tax-exempt status, the Government Accountability Office has released a new report finding that the IRS needs to improve its internal controls.

A coalition of charitable organizations is calling on Congress to protect the charitable deduction as leaders of Congress’s tax-writing committees step up their efforts to forge comprehensive tax reform.

At least two congressional committees plan to hold hearings on the Internal Revenue Service’s admission that it targeted for special attention groups promoting limited government.