Tax practice

What to do when your clients receive one of the IRS’s four new business income under-reporting letters

The IRS has updated procedures to strengthen the Individual Taxpayer Identification Number program requirements.

The Income Tax School has launched a Web site of more than 70 tax courses and products, plus many free resources for tax professionals. ITS said the move was in response to the new IRS regulations for tax preparers and the corresponding growing demand for tax education.

Two lucky winners in Arizona and Missouri will be able to claim the record-shattering $580 million Powerball jackpot after Wednesday night’s drawing, but they will also face taxes and need financial advice.

Last week I moderated an Accounting Today Web Seminar on Tax Office Workflow.

President Barack Obama urged middle-class families who are in danger of seeing their taxes go up next year to begin using Twitter and other forms of communication to urge lawmakers to extend tax cuts for the middle class.

The U.S. Treasury Department and Mexico’s Ministry of Finance have struck a bilateral agreement to implement the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act requiring financial institutions to report the holdings of U.S. and Mexican taxpayers to each other’s tax authorities.

A recent federal appeals court decision has same-sex couples taking note. In Windsor v United States, the court allowed an estate tax marital deduction to the surviving spouse of a same-sex couple, striking down the Defense of Marriage Act definition of marriage as unconstitutional.

Tax Preparer Solutions, a provider of online income tax filing solutions, has launched two software products: Preparer Direct and the TPS White Label Platform, both designed to let distribution partners to provide consumer tax preparation and filing services to customers.

Billionaire investor Warren Buffett has revived his calls for increased taxes on the wealthy in the op-ed pages of The New York Times.

A new White House report from the President’s Council of Economic Advisers predicts that allowing tax rates for the middle class to rise and failing to patch the alternative minimum tax would have a negative impact on consumer spending and retailers alike.

Small tax-exempt organizations that have not filed returns with the Internal Revenue Service for three years will not automatically lose their tax-exempt status if they were affected by Hurricane Sandy.

The U.S. Treasury Department and the Internal Revenue Service said Wednesday that the governments of the U.S. and Denmark have reached a bilateral agreement to implement the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act to improve international tax compliance.

A Bronx tax preparer has been charged with 46 counts for filing tax returns with the Internal Revenue Service and New York State that contained more than $7 million in fraudulent tax deductions and credits, resulting in over $2.5 million in fraudulent tax refunds.

A New Jersey woman who owned a tax preparation business was sentenced to 18 months in prison for filing false tax returns on behalf of her clients and herself, resulting in a tax loss of nearly $200,000.

Grant Thornton is offer some year-end tax planning tips for both individuals and businesses, and their accountants, facing the expiration of the Bush tax cuts.

The Internal Revenue Service has raised the standard mileage rates by 1 cent per mile for next year when calculating the deductible costs of operating an automobile for business, charitable, medical or moving purposes.

The IRS has released preliminary information regarding further changes to the repair regulations.

South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley released a report from a security company on a data breach at the South Carolina Department of Revenue that exposed the tax information of millions of taxpayers in the state to foreign computer hackers, while asking the IRS to take further steps to encrypt taxpayer information.

The IRS has extended until December 7 the diesel fuel penalty waiver for New Jersey and parts of New York.