Tax practice

The IRS recently made it clear that even if taxpayers engage a third party to perform a cost segregation analysis, they cannot avoid penalties for aggressive positions taken in the cost segregation report.

The former manager of an H&R Block outlet pleaded guilty Monday to charges that he used the identities of his former tax prep clients to file false tax returns seeking fraudulent tax refunds.

The Internal Revenue Service is reminding tax practitioners that they cannot electronically file Form 8839, Qualified Adoption Expenses, this year, but instead must mail the forms to the IRS.

A law firm representing a trio of independent tax preparers has filed a strongly worded response to the Internal Revenue Service’s motion for a stay on a judge’s ruling that invalidated the IRS’s testing and continuing education requirements for tax preparers.

The IRS has released a new notice with guidance on the American Taxpayer Relief Act, and gives employers extra time to file a form to qualify for the Work Opportunity Credit.

The number of tax-delinquent federal workers and retirees increased by 11.5 percent in 2011, according to Internal Revenue Service data.

The Internal Revenue Service’s Office of Professional Responsibility has obtained the disbarment of enrolled agent Lorna M. Walker for stealing a client's tax payments and preparing tax returns with false deductions for multiple clients.

The Internal Revenue Service has notified tax attorneys around the country that their clients have been disqualified from participation in the Offshore Voluntary Disclosure Program, even after they had initially been accepted in the program.

Like most of you, I’ve already experienced my fair share of stress this busy season, and it has barely begun. In addition to the shortened filing period, many practitioners are facing significant software glitches. Those are tough challenges for firms like my own, which consists of myself, a seasonal employee and an administrative person.

Worker classification has long been an area only vaguely understood by many employers. The law is not only not settled, it’s unclear, going all the way back to the common law of England.

With lawmakers under pressure to find ways to reduce the deficit while avoiding the more painful spending cuts in the sequester, the Senate Budget Committee held a hearing to examine how to reduce the deficit by eliminating wasteful spending in the Tax Code.

The Internal Revenue Service reminded practitioners that they should not include advertisements for their services when sending out W-2 forms.

Taxes are increasingly spreading beyond national and state borders to make more of a global impact, affecting economic activity across the world.

Delays in implementing a computer security tool resulted in the lack of continuous monitoring for security issues on employee workstations at the Internal Revenue Service, according to a new report.

The Internal Revenue Service’s Criminal Investigation unit is issuing a stern warning to New Jersey tax preparers as it cracks down on preparers who falsify tax returns, while cautioning taxpayers to choose preparers carefully.

More than one in 10 Americans think it’s OK to cheat on their taxes -- but that’s one of the lowest percentages ever recorded, according to the 2012 Taxpayer Attitude Survey, which was just released by the IRS Oversight Board.

The Internal Revenue Service said Tuesday that its Modernized e-File Production system is taking longer to generate federal acknowledgments for tax return filings.

Switzerland’s oldest bank, Wegelin & Co., has been sentenced and ordered to pay the U.S. government approximately $58 million for conspiring with its U.S. clients and others to evade income taxes in the first-ever such sentence for a foreign bank.

The Internal Revenue Service said that budget sequestration would require reductions in refundable credits for certain tax-exempt bonds and the refundable portion of the Small Business Health Care Tax Credit for some small tax-exempt employers.

Former Jenkens & Gilchrist lawyer Donna Guerin was sentenced to eight years in prison and ordered to pay $190 million for her role in what the U.S. called the largest criminal tax fraud in history.