Tax practice

The Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations held a hearing on offshore profit shifting and the U.S. tax code, examining in particular the practices of Microsoft and Hewlett-Packard, while questioning an Ernst & Young tax partner who services HP.

Congress’s two tax-writing committees, the House Ways and Means Committee and the Senate Finance Committee, held a joint hearing Thursday to discuss capital gains taxes and how they might be reformed.

Government debt hit a record $16 trillion last week, accompanied by the usual calls for tax increases to help plug the gap between revenue and expenditures. But for those who believe that the way out of our deficit includes raising taxes, there’s a cautionary study that suggests otherwise.

California Governor Jerry Brown signed a law Thursday allowing CPAs from outside California to practice across state lines without needing additional licenses.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid predicted that Congress will reach a deal after the Nov. 6 election to avert hundreds of billions of dollars in tax increases and spending cuts known as the “fiscal cliff” set to begin in January.

Tax business owners, as well as small businesses in general, are focusing more on such Internet marketing techniques as e-commerce and social media even while relying on such traditional methods as networking and targeted advertising to attract new clients, according to Chuck McCabe, CEO of The Income Tax School Inc.

Eleven years ago, eliminating income taxes for low-income Americans was an applause line for a Republican president. Mitt Romney in 2012 sees the number of people paying nothing as a political problem.

Politicians and policy makers always seem to be talking about “broadening the tax base” and “eliminating tax loopholes,” but rarely do we hear specifics.

Taxpayers involved in correspondence audits will derive numerous benefits from a new telephone system now in use by the Internal Revenue Service, according to a new study by the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration.

Donna Guerin, 52, of Elmhurst, Ill., has pled guilty to conspiracy and tax evasion charges stemming from her work in fraudulent tax shelters that allowed her clients to claim billions in tax losses.

U.S. Rep. Dave Camp, R-Mich., chairman of the House Ways & Means Committee, and U.S. Senator Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, ranking member of the Senate Finance Committee, have called on New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman to halt all exploratory efforts involving the activities of several businesses and nonprofit 501(c)(4) organizations.

Taxpayer information may be a risk of unauthorized disclosure and misuse when tax professionals electronically submit power of attorney forms (Form 2848), according to the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration.

With the presidential candidates arguing over lowering taxes and cutting spending, the Congressional Research Service has weighed in with a historical analysis that claims that reducing tax rates for the highest-income taxpayers does not promote growth.

Taxpayers who are still recovering from the economic downturn will get at least some relief in 2013 by way of the mandatory upward inflation-adjustments called for under the tax code, according to CCH.

The Internal Revenue Service has proposed new regulations governing practice before the agency, including written tax advice and "covered opinions" by practitioners.

The U.S. Treasury Department said Friday that it has signed a bilateral agreement with the United Kingdom to implement information reporting and withholding tax provisions under the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act, or FATCA, allowing the two governments to share information about taxpayers from the U.S. and U.K.

With more than 127 million personal information records exposed in 2011, identity theft has led to a flood of fraudulent tax filings, and tens of thousands of honest taxpayers are now subjected to delays in their legitimate refund claims, according to the Internal Revenue Service.

Mitt Romney says he can lower income tax rates by 20 percent without costing the U.S. government revenue and without making the middle class carry a bigger share of the tax load.

Few criminal tax cases are defended successfully, with the government boasting a conviction rate of 94 percent. So when the IRS used information from three jailed former boiler room operators to go after Boca Raton CPA John Miller, it didn’t look good for Miller.

Preparing accurate tax returns is still a challenge for all too many participants in the Internal Revenue Service’s Volunteer Program, according to a new government report.