Tax practice

The Internal Revenue Service is not making consistent use of the codes that are supposed to indicate which IRS enforcement actions have led to taxpayers paying their outstanding taxes due, according to a new government report.

Internal Revenue Service Commissioner Doug Shulman described in a speech Thursday how the agency is using information from its tax preparer regulation initiative to identify practitioners who are showing patterns of tax fraud.

The National Society of Accountants has begun providing an online webinar program to help tax preparers get ready for the Internal Revenue Service’s new tax preparer exam.

The U.S. Tax Court filed a case last month that at first glance appears to deal a serious blow to cost segregation studies on residential apartments. However, upon further review, this court case is not as detrimental as it might appear.

One of the promoters of a bogus foreign currency exchange investment fund that effectively operated as a Ponzi scheme has been sentenced to nearly two years in jail on tax charges.

President Obama lashed out at the Republican budget plan passed last week by the House and endorsed by Mitt Romney.

States are cracking down on software and devices that help businesses cheat on taxes at the cash register.

The Internal Revenue Service said Tuesday that taxpayers who are unable to file their taxes by the April 17 deadline can still use its Free File facility to apply for a six-month extension.

About 11 million homeowners owe more than their homes are worth, according to real estate data firm CoreLogic, and while taxes may not be the first thing they think about in deciding what to do, all the various options have tax consequences.

The office at the Internal Revenue Service that is responsible for monitoring the IRS network for cyberattacks and computer vulnerabilities is generally doing a good job, but still has room for improvement, according to a new government report.

The Internal Revenue Service has opened the official nominating season for the Information Reporting Program Advisory Committee, a federal advisory group that provides recommendations to the IRS on information reporting issues that concern both the private sector and the federal government.

The Internal Revenue Service reported Monday that the number of completed Advance Pricing Agreements, in which the IRS and multinational corporate taxpayers work out voluntary agreements on transfer pricing, fell last year as the agency coped with reorganization and personnel shifts.

From now through April 13, Intuit’s Accounting Professional Division will host a series on its Lacerte and ProSeries Live Community Web pages in which Intuit experts address customers’ product and general tax questions.

The case of a wealthy U.S. businessman who pleaded guilty to evading taxes but then sued the Swiss bank where he hid his money is scheduled to go to trial on May 8, the first major test of civil legal challenges to Swiss banks that sold offshore private banking services to help Americans evade taxes.

Columnists Jones and Luscombe examine the tax treatment of frequent flier and rewards plans

The latest developments in tax

Experts see brighter hopes for corporate tax reform, but not this year

President Obama said in his weekly address Saturday that Congress will be voting in the weeks ahead on the Buffett Rule, which would raise taxes on the wealthy.

The Internal Revenue Service has recently published its final regulations on public inspection of material relating to tax-exempt organizations, which affects organizations that were exempt but are no longer exempt from federal income tax, and organizations that were denied tax-exempt status.

The U.S. is set to have the highest combined federal and state statutory corporate tax rate in the industrialized world on Sunday, April 1, once Japan drops its top rate to 38.1 percent.