Tax practice

The IRS has posted a Frequently Asked Questions page regarding Electronic Filing ID Numbers.

The Internal Revenue Service has issued proposed regulations to create a new taxpayer identifying number known as the IRS Truncated Taxpayer Identification Number, or TTIN, that can be used instead of a Social Security number in response to the growing problem of identity theft-related tax fraud.

The Internal Revenue Service could significantly increase the revenues it collects from taxpayers by targeting its enforcement resources better, especially by using correspondence exams, according to a new report.

Switzerland’s oldest bank, Wegelin & Co., has agreed to pay $74 million to the United States to settle charges that it conspired to evade taxes with its U.S. clients, in the first-ever guilty plea to tax law violations by a foreign bank.

The IRS has updated income-tax withholding tables for 2013, reflecting this week’s changes by Congress. The tables, issued after President Obama signed the changes into law, show the new rates in effect for 2013 and supersede the tables issued on Dec. 31, 2012.

President Barack Obama signed the legislation that enacts a last-minute budget deal and averts income tax increases for most U.S. workers, marking an end to a yearlong impasse.

Even though President Obama indicated only last Friday that the fiscal cliff deal likely to be produced by the January 1 deadline would be a basic package, lawmakers managed to come out with a surprisingly comprehensive set of tax provisions, some with long-lasting effects.

Seems like a timesaver in tax season: Scan all documents and let software auto-fill information from clients’ forms. Selecting scanners, however, means gambling that a hardware investment will, in fact, pay off, and that can mean carefully examining your client base and information flow.

The House passed a deal to avert an income tax rate increase on middle-class families on Tuesday night, following a New Year’s Eve vote by the Senate, sending the bill to President Obama for his signature.

It looks as though the Internal Revenue Service is finally convinced, like the rest of us, that it is going to have to deal with the new Medicare contribution taxes coming into effect in 2013.

Important developments in tax from the previous month

The internal Revenue Service has always been able to match individual returns against information statements and propose under-reporter adjustments that come in the form of CP2000 notices. But things are changing, and a new era is upon us.

Tips for preparers ready to strike out on their own

The Internal Revenue Service released new income tax withholding tables for 2013 late Monday to reflect the expiration of the 2001 and 2003 Bush tax cuts and the more recent payroll tax cuts of 2011 and 2012, but noted that the guidance would be modified if Congress acts.

The U.S. Senate passed a bipartisan budget deal two hours after income tax cuts expired, reaching an after-deadline deal to undo the potential economic harm of $600 billion in tax increases and spending cuts.

The U.S. House of Representatives doesn’t plan any votes on the federal budget tonight, meaning that Congress for now will fail to avert $600 billion in tax increases and spending cuts set to start at midnight.

In addition to the previously announced Centralized Authorization File outage from December 26 to January 2 at 6 a.m. ET (see "IRS Warns of Service Disruption Christmas Week"), the IRS e-Services' Transcript Delivery System, Disclosure Authorization and Electronic Account Resolution systems will be unavailable for three additional business days. They should return to operation January 6.

The Internal Revenue Service has issued proposed regulations on the shared responsibility for large employers to provide health care coverage under the Affordable Care Act.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid rejected the latest Republican offer to resolve the U.S. fiscal crisis as Minority Leader Mitch McConnell reached out to Vice President Joe Biden in an effort to break the impasse.

The Internal Revenue Service has modified the mandatory language that tax preparers need to use when asking consent from their clients to use or disclose their tax information.