Tax practice

The Internal Revenue Service is not fully compliant with a federal law requiring the agency to eliminate and report improper payments made to taxpayers, according to a new government report.

Intuit has experienced a steady increase in sales of its Web-based consumer tax preparation product, TurboTax Online, while sales of its desktop software have dipped.

A surge in tax refund fraud and identity theft has prompted the Internal Revenue Service to consider sharing more tax return information with police, a senior official told a congressional hearing on Tuesday.

Internal Revenue Service Commissioner Doug Shulman warned Thursday of a delayed tax season next year unless Congress resolves questions over the alternative minimum tax patch and other tax extender items, and talked about the tax refund delays this tax season.

Rep. Charles Rangel, D-N.Y., has introduced a bill aimed at extending tax relief to Americans in danger of losing their homes.

As companies continue to experience an increase in the frequency of tax-related audits, due to sales and use tax complexity, new levels of enforcement and other factors, they are experiencing a corresponding impact on the efficiency of their tax departments.

A bill advertised as creating jobs at small businesses and increasing their access to capital from the public markets would also knock down many of the auditing controls protecting investors.

The Internal Revenue Service is staffing up with high-powered talent to crack down on companies shifting profits from country to country to lower their tax bills, a hot strategy the agency has targeted before with only limited success.

House Budget Committee chairman Paul Ryan, R-Wisc., has introduced a Republican-backed alternative to the Obama administration’s fiscal 2013 budget, including a proposal to consolidating the current six individual income tax brackets into just two brackets of 10 and 25 percent.

Tax resolution chain TaxMasters has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection.

A former Internal Revenue Service revenue agent has been sentenced to nearly three years in prison for his involvement with a scam that bilked investors out of more than $8 million by persuading them to buy unregistered securities in various Internet companies.

The Internal Revenue Service has proposed regulations that would require taxpayers with Employer Identification Numbers to periodically provide the IRS with up-to-date information.

Only 16 percent of tax and finance departments are actively involved in corporate sustainability efforts, according to a new survey by Ernst & Young.

The Internal Revenue Service needs to do a better job of documenting whether it completed all of the necessary pre-screening steps before hiring new employees, according to a new government report.

A Southern California tax preparer was convicted in a Seattle courtroom for helping nearly 1,000 clients claim more than $763 million in fraudulent tax refunds by preparing falsified tax returns on their behalf.

Weaknesses in the Internal Revenue Service’s financial and tax-processing systems continue to jeopardize the confidentiality, integrity and availability of sensitive taxpayer information, according to a new report by the Government Accountability Office.

This is the first year that the IRS requires payments made with a credit or debit card to be reported by merchants who processed more than $20,000 and 200 transactions.

A congressional subcommittee plans to hold a hearing next Thursday on the 2012 tax return filing season, with one of the main topics to be the recent reports of tax refund delays.

The Senate failed to pass an amendment that would have extended a set of expiring tax credits for wind energy, biofuels, energy efficient homes and other tax breaks.

Nearly two-thirds of tax professionals are unaware of the various tax incentives that are available to private investors in clean energy projects, according to a new poll by Bloomberg BNA.