Tax practice

Changes to the tax laws at the beginning of the year resulted in a delayed tax season in which the average tax refund declined slightly, according to a new government report.

Several tax preparers in New York City and Long Island have been arrested and prosecuted after investigations into the filing of false state and federal income tax returns.

As tax season winds down, it may be hard to think about work beyond the imminent and deserved time off, but there are points you can raise with clients to keep them coming to you for the rest of the year, too.

New documents from the Internal Revenue Service suggest the agency’s criminal tax division has been reading taxpayers emails without a warrant despite an appeals court decision saying that violates the Fourth Amendment.

Owning your own business is about doing the one thing you love to do, and 99 other things you dislike but must do, according to Roger Harris, president and chief operating officer of Padgett Business Services.

A group representing charitable organizations said it is concerned about a proposed cap to the charitable tax deduction included in President Obama's budget plan.

President Barack Obama formally unveiled the administration’s fiscal 2014 budget on Wednesday with some familiar proposals for tax reform, along with key concessions on entitlement reform.

In the midst of busy season, Philadelphia-based tax accountants Drucker & Scaccetti are taking a moment to enjoy the lighter side of taxes -- by hosting a special exhibit of great cartoons about taxes.

The Internal Revenue Service is planning an 18 percent reduction in its audits of large businesses in the current fiscal year, according to a new report.

The Internal Revenue has not established effective processes to ensure that its Privacy Impact Assessments are completed in a timely way, and are updated and made publicly available, with privacy policies posted on public Web sites for all required systems and collections of information, according to a new government report.

The U.S. Senate confirmed Mary Jo White to lead the Securities and Exchange Commission, putting the former U.S. attorney in charge of an agency that has failed to satisfy critics with its response to the financial crisis.

The Internal Revenue Service has released a draft version of the form that financial institutions will use to register in accordance with the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act, or FATCA.

The union representing Internal Revenue Service employees is warning that budget cuts will hamper IRS efforts to combat identity theft and assist taxpayers.

The leaders of Congress’s main tax-writing committees said they plan to ask for proposals from the public for tax reform ideas using social media in an effort to make the process more transparent.

Actor Wesley Snipes has been released from prison after serving nearly two and a half years in prison for failing to file tax returns.

An Arizona tax preparer has been indicted for filing 84 tax returns fraudulently claiming the First-Time Homebuyer Tax Credit.

An audit by the Government Accountability Office of the Securities and Exchanges Commission’s Investor Protection Fund financial statements for fiscal years 2011 and 2012 found two areas of significant deficiency in the SEC’s internal controls.

As the April 15 deadline for filing taxes approaches, a federal prosecutor and the head of the IRS Criminal Investigation’s Newark Field Office are reminding taxpayers to accurately and completely fill out their returns and make sure they file them on time, while pointing out that not all tax preparers are honest.

The average individual taxpayer would have needed to shoulder an estimated $1,026 last year to make up for the revenue lost to the offshore tax havens used by corporations and the wealthy, while small businesses would have to pay an extra $3,067 to cover the cost of offshore tax breaks used by large corporations, according to a new study.

President Barack Obama’s budget proposal would cap multimillion-dollar tax-favored retirement accounts like the one held by Mitt Romney, his Republican rival in 2012.