Tax practice

A New Jersey tax preparer has pleaded guilty to willfully preparing false tax returns for his clients to secure larger tax refunds.

The Internal Revenue Service’s risk assessment process does not provide a reliable assessment of the risk of the improper payments in the IRS’s revenue funds, according to a new report.

The Internal Revenue Service said Thursday it was expanding its Voluntary Classification Settlement Program to enable more businesses to reclassify their workers as employees, as opposed to independent contractors, for future tax periods, offering them relief from their past payroll tax obligations.

The Senate has confirmed Jacob Lew as the next Secretary of the Treasury, succeeding Timothy Geithner.

The Internal Revenue Service plans to allow more of the remaining tax forms that have not been available for electronic filing yet this tax season to go through during the first week of March.

The Justice Department has won a tax shelter case involving Dow Chemical, in which the company was accused of creating approximately $1 billion in phony tax deductions in a scheme designed by Goldman Sachs and lawyers at King & Spalding.

The IRS has released Revenue Procedure 2013-21, which provides the depreciation deduction limitations for owners of passenger automobiles.

The Financial Crimes Enforcement Network, one of the Treasury Department’s lead agencies in the battle against money laundering and other crimes, has issued an advisory to financial institutions warning them to beware of tax refund fraud and identity theft, and to report such activity by filing Suspicious Activity Reports.

Private equity fund managers are beginning to be concerned that they may lose their tax break on carried interest as lawmakers in Washington again debate tax reform.

Less than two months ago Washington escaped from the doomsday scenario of the looming “fiscal cliff.” Now it faces the threat of the less colorfully named “sequester” or “sequestration,” depending on who’s talking about it, but somehow the dire warnings of impending disaster are beginning to sound unconvincing.

The Internal Revenue Service has filed notices with a federal district court and appeals court of its intention to appeal a judge’s ruling that struck down the mandatory testing and continuing education requirements of its Registered Tax Return Preparer regime and asked the court to suspend the January ruling that invalidated the RTRP regime.

The Internal Revenue Service has released a favorable private letter ruling allowing WTP Exchange, an affiliate of WTP Advisors, to provide both like-kind exchange software and qualified intermediary services.

The IRS announced that it would no longer hold tax returns that both claimed the Earned Income Tax Credit and had incomplete or appropriate Forms 8867 attached.

Parents and students should check if they qualify for either of two college education tax credits or any of several other education-related tax benefits, according to the IRS.

The IRS has released a schedule of cities and dates for the 2013 Tax Forums.

The IRS has issued warning to taxpayers who receive emails claiming to be from the agency.

As Presidents’ Day Week winds down, it seems logical to pay a little attention to Presidents Washington and Lincoln, especially their wisdom and the positions they held on a number of the issues they faced in their time.

The Internal Revenue Service is taking further steps to combat identity theft, including issuing proposed regulations that allow taxpayers to truncate the identification numbers on some tax documents they file.

Social media sites Facebook and LinkedIn are enjoying massive tax breaks on stock options, according to recent reports.

The Internal Revenue Service has introduced a new tool for determining a taxpayer’s eligibility for an offer in compromise that can help lower the taxpayer’s outstanding tax debts.