Tax practice

As Democrats demand tax concessions from Republicans to avert a collision over the federal budget, Senate Democratic leaders are signaling that they may be willing to trade an entitlement spending overhaul to secure a deficit- reduction deal.

The Internal Revenue Service and the Treasury Department have issued a set of proposed regulations on the 3.8 percent Net Investment Income Tax that takes effect next year as a result of the health care reform law, along with a FAQ page with questions and answers.

The American Institute of CPAs has written a letter to the Internal Revenue Service and the Treasury Department asking for changes in proposed regulations for tax practitioners.

Failure by Congress to act on the alternative minimum tax by year’s end will lead to “significant” delays in tax filing and a strain on taxpayers, said Steven Miller, the Internal Revenue Service’s acting commissioner.

President Barack Obama again warned lawmakers that the U.S. economy will suffer unless there’s an agreement on a way to prevent more than $600 billion in automatic spending cuts and tax increases from taking effect.

While improvements have been made in the Internal Revenue Service’s information technology systems over the past year, the IRS still needs to do more to protect sensitive financial and taxpayer data and deliver new systems, according to a new report.

The Internal Revenue Service has released interim guidance and final regulations on the medical device excise tax that was included as part of the Affordable Care Act.

The Minnesota Board on Judicial Standards has made a formal complaint against the state tax court’s chief judge, George Perez.

The so-called fiscal cliff has politicians in Washington performing the political equivalent of a soap opera as they leave the country in suspense about whether they will manage to resolve a self-inflicted crisis in time to avoid a recession next year.

The Internal Revenue Service has issued proposed regulations on the 0.9 percent Additional Medicare Tax for upper-income taxpayers scheduled to take effect next year as a result of the Affordable Care Act.

Small businesses need to deal with several changes in W-2 and 1099 forms and reporting requirements this year as the IRS looks to close the tax gap.

House Republicans, rejecting President Barack Obama’s demand for higher tax rates, countered with a $2.2 trillion deficit-cutting plan that would trim Medicare and Social Security and cap tax deductions for top earners.

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., said she would try to use a procedure known as a discharge petition to bring a Senate-passed bill for extending the middle-class tax cuts to the floor of the House.

Large whistleblower awards have been making headlines lately. News of a record $108 million award paid out by the Internal Revenue Service in September, followed by media coverage of $38 million and $2 million awards only weeks later, seem almost more akin to reports on lottery jackpots than informant compensation.

Many tax practitioners focus on improving their efficiency during tax season, but there are plenty of things they can do in advance to ensure success from January to April, according to 2020 Group chairman and CEO Chris Frederiksen.

The Internal Revenue Service has released its annual update identifying the circumstances under which the disclosure on a taxpayer's income tax return with respect to an item or a position is adequate for the purposes of reducing the understatement of income tax and avoiding the tax return preparer penalty.

With the alternative minimum tax still unpatched for this year and estimated to spread to an additional 28 million households next tax season unless Congress acts to avert the fiscal cliff, newly released statistics from the Internal Revenue Service reveal that even the patched AMT hit millions more households in 2010 than in 2009.

The Internal Revenue Service and the Treasury Department have released their 2012-2013 priority guidance plan outlining 317 projects that they plan to prioritize from July 2012 to June 2013 in providing guidance and regulations to tax practitioners.

The National Society of Accountants has called on the IRS to immediately revise the Circular 230 provision that states that tax preparers may not give tax advice that is not directly related to prepared tax returns.

Congressional Republicans dug in to fight President Barack Obama’s plan to skirt the fiscal cliff, rejecting his tax-and-spending proposal as the president heads out today to sell it to the American public.