Tax practice

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.

The House held a hearing Thursday to discuss small business perspectives on the tax cliff, hearing testimony from a representative of the American Institute of CPAs and other witnesses.

An Internal Revenue Service program that is supposed to be able to refer potential tax fraud cases to IRS criminal investigators needs to be improved, according to a new report.

The likelihood of being audited by the Internal Revenue Service has its strongest impact on laxly governed companies and fosters corporate truthfulness not just in confidential tax returns, but in public financial reports, according to new research.

A high-ranking Internal Revenue Service official told a congressional panel that the agency is not planning to use tactics like tax liens and levies to make sure taxpayers are properly complying with the new health care reform law.

CCH has published a special report comparing the tax policies and proposals of President Barack Obama with his Republican rival Mitt Romney.

Corporations are setting aside more money in their reserves for uncertain tax positions than they are actually paying to the federal government, according to a new study.

The Internal Revenue Service has begun previewing a set of draft forms to help taxpayers and banks comply with the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act.

Bradley Birkenfeld, the former UBS AG banker who told the Internal Revenue Service how the bank helped thousands of Americans evade taxes, secured an IRS award of $104 million, an amount his lawyers said may be the largest ever for an individual U.S. whistleblower.

A federal judge in Worcester, Mass., has sentenced William Scott Dion of Sanbornville, N.H., to 84 months in prison for conspiring to defraud the United States and for obstructing the IRS.

The Facebook farewell message of departing IRS Return Preparer Office director David Williams has prompted a number of good wishes and gratitude for his work.