Tax practice

Clients have a lot of questions this year beyond just higher taxes. Preparers report they’ve already begun fielding inquiries about the later start to tax season and possible delays in refunds.

The IRS will issue guidance soon to provide relief from the estimated tax penalty for farmers and fishermen unable to file and pay their 2012 taxes by the March 1 deadline due to the delayed start for filing tax returns.

The recent fiscal cliff tax deal extends the ability to treat mortgage insurance premiums as qualified residential interest, and the Internal Revenue Service is providing guidance on how to report the premiums on Form 1098, both electronically and on paper.

The Treasury Department and the Internal Revenue Service have issued a long-awaited set of final regulations implementing the information reporting and withholding tax provisions of the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act aimed at combating offshore tax evasion, with far-reaching implications for U.S.-born taxpayers abroad, in addition to foreign financial institutions as well as U.S. banks.

The Internal Revenue Service has provided guidance on the monthly transit benefit that was extended in the fiscal cliff deal earlier this month and how employers who paid more than the maximum exclusion limit can fix the discrepancy.

Preparers who add more employees during tax season -- especially employees new to a practice -- must develop standards of communication and management, according to the Income Tax School’s white paper, “Leveling the Playing Field: How to Compete with the National Firms.”

The Internal Revenue Service faced challenges last tax season providing telephone service to taxpayers and responding to their correspondence, continuing the negative trends in recent years despite some efficiency gains and efforts to improve service, according to a new report by the Government Accountability Office.

Despite efforts by the Internal Revenue Service to prevent tax fraud by prison inmates, the problem has been growing with the amount of fraudulent tax returns filed by prisoners and identified by the IRS increasing from more than 18,000 in calendar year 2004 to more than 91,000 tax returns in 2010, with the refunds claimed on these returns climbing from $68 million to $757 million.

A former CPA and tax preparer who spent three years on the run as a fugitive in Pakistan has pleaded guilty to charges of engaging in a tax refund conspiracy after he was accused of using the names and Social Security numbers of dead people to submit false claims for income tax refunds.

The Internal Revenue Service is providing information on some of the retirement plan provisions of the fiscal cliff deal that was signed into law earlier this month.

Bloomberg has introduced a Tax Practice Center to complement its tax law research service.

The former treasurer of a local union chapter of IRS and other Treasury Department employees has been charged with embezzling over $20,000 of the union’s funds.

The Internal Revenue Service plans to introduce a simplified way for small business owners and home-based employees to claim the home office tax deduction.

Approximately 60 percent of taxpayers who claim large-dollar noncash charitable contributions on their returns may not be complying with federal reporting requirements, according to a new report, with potentially erroneous contributions estimated at $3.8 billion in 2010.

The Internal Revenue Service has released a long-awaited set of rules for correcting employee retirement plans that fail to meet the requirements of the Tax Code.

The Internal Revenue Service has reversed course on its prohibition against stockpiling tax returns before transmitting, and said Friday that because of the late tax law changes, the stockpiling rule does not apply.

The Internal Revenue Service has released the annual inflation adjustments for 2013, including the tax rate schedules and other tax changes from the recently enacted fiscal cliff legislation with its new tax rate of 39.6 percent and permanently patched Alternative Minimum Tax.

A Palm Beach, Fla., woman has pleaded guilty to failing to disclose income from money that she and her late husband held in a Swiss bank account at UBS and later transferred to Liechtenstein, and she has agreed to pay a $21 million penalty.

The Internal Revenue Service stated on Tuesday that they will begin processing individual tax returns on Jan. 30, 2013, marking the official beginning of “tax season” for tax professionals.

CCH has issued a new report looking back at the year in tax, summarizing the major developments up to and including the fiscal cliff legislation that was passed by Congress on New Year’s Day.