Tax practice

The Internal Revenue Service plans to release a new information reporting form that taxpayers will need to use next tax season to report on certain types of foreign financial assets for tax year 2011.

New information released Wednesday on the holdings of U.S.-based multinational corporations is adding fresh ammunition to the dispute over whether companies should be given a tax holiday on repatriated foreign profits.

The tax plan advanced by Republican presidential candidate Newt Gingrich would have the effect of adding over $1 trillion to the federal deficit in a single year and give the overwhelming share of tax benefits to those at the upper end of the income scale.

House Republicans have passed an extension of the payroll tax cut for another year, but Senate Democrats have vowed to defeat the bill when it comes up for a vote Wednesday.

A new study has cast doubt on claims from legislators and lobbyists that a tax holiday for multinational corporations on their repatriated foreign earnings would spark an economic revival in the U.S.

A bipartisan group of lawmakers are seeking to make sure an extension of the deduction for state and local sales tax payments is included in the tax extenders package that is expected to come before Congress early next year.

The Internal Revenue Service has provided information to clarify the tax responsibilities of U.S. citizens and dual citizens living abroad in response to concerns from Canadians and expatriates from other countries about penalties that might be levied on their unpaid taxes and undeclared bank accounts.

The Internal Revenue Service released on Friday the optional standard mileage rates that business taxpayers can use in 2012 to figure the deductible costs of operating a vehicle for business, charitable, medical or moving purposes, and for the most part they have not changed a great deal.

House Republicans introduced their version of a payroll tax cut extension bill on Friday, a day after competing Republican and Democratic versions of payroll tax cut legislation failed for the second time to advance in the Senate.

A pro-business lobbying group is disputing the claims in a recently released report that found some of the most profitable corporations avoiding billions of dollars in state taxes.

The Internal Revenue Service has signed a $6.25 million contract with the SAS Institute to use the company’s analytical software to help it identify tax evasion and fraud as part of the agency’s Return Review Program.

CCH has given users of the Comtax system access to its World Tax Treaties information through CCH’s IntelliConnect research service.

Even though the deadline has passed for taxpayers with foreign bank accounts to voluntarily step forward and disclose them to the IRS, it still makes sense to do so.

The American Institute of CPAs told the Internal Revenue Service at a hearing Thursday that it supports the agency’s overall goal of changing the U.S. tax system to one that matches tax return filings in real time with information returns from third parties.

Over half the financial professionals in a new survey said that tax increases should not be taken off the table in order for Washington to reach a deficit reduction agreement.

The Internal Revenue Service is preparing a legislative proposal for Congress to expand its tax levy authority to include additional income sources, such as rental income and non-employee compensation.

Nearly half of senior executives favor changing how corporate income earned outside the United States is taxed, according to a new survey, although many don’t expect much progress on the issue of corporate tax reform before the 2012 elections.

Sixty-eight of the most consistently profitable Fortune 500 companies paid no state corporate income tax in at least one of the last three years, and 20 of the companies averaged a tax rate of zero or less from 2008-2010.

The Internal Revenue Service did not always follow the strict purchasing regulations required under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 when it spent the funds it received from the economic stimulus law, according to a new government report.

The Senate and the House’s tax-writing committees held a rare joint hearing on reforming the tax treatment of financial products such as derivatives.