Tax practice

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., saw his plan to raise the debt ceiling turned back Sunday afternoon by a vote of 50-49.

A group of Democratic lawmakers has introduced a bill in Congress aimed at leveling the playing field for sales tax charges between online retailers and brick-and-mortar stores.

Microsoft revealed in its 10-K annual report that its use of low-tax countries to shift some of its foreign income has subjected it to an IRS review that could have a significant impact on its financial statements.

A group of Democratic senators urged airlines to reduce their airfares and pass the savings from the temporary expiration of airline ticket taxes on to their passengers.

President Obama called on Congress to move quickly on lifting the debt ceiling Friday as the August 2 deadline rapidly approaches.

A Southern California tax preparer has pleaded guilty to tax charges, admitting that he caused a tax loss to the government of $7,982,043 for tax years 2003 to 2009 by inflating the amount of mortgage interest on his clients’ tax returns.

Arkansas joined the list of states holding sales tax holidays for back-to-school season, but Illinois dropped its sales tax holiday this year.

IMGCAP(1)]With Medicare fraud costing the federal government an estimated $60 billion a year, it makes perfect sense that the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services has tapped aerospace innovator Northrop Grumman to create a predictive model that will detect fraud. Or does it?

The Senate Finance Committee asked a series of corporate executives about whether they could accept the loss of some corporate tax breaks in exchange for lower tax rates. For the most part, they said yes.

Congress held an oversight hearing Thursday to examine progress on the Internal Revenue Service’s new tax return preparer initiative.

The Internal Revenue Service needs to do a better job of safeguarding sensitive information about taxpayer bankruptcy petitions, even from its own employees, according to a new government report.

The Senate Subcommittee on Contracting Oversight held a hearing to examine the diversion of federal contracts for small businesses to large companies.

The Internal Revenue Service said that some travelers may be entitled to refunds on the ticket taxes that airlines have been charging after Congress failed to pass a reauthorization bill last Friday for the Federal Aviation Administration.

The Internal Revenue Service is reorganizing several of its units concerned with international tax compliance and transfer pricing to bolster its enforcement efforts.

The House Ways and Means Committee held a hearing to weigh the pros and cons of two different consumption tax models: the value-added tax and the FairTax.

A pair of Democratic senators has written to the head of Delta Airlines and the Air Transport Association telling him that airlines should not be raising their fares to make money off the temporary expiration of ticket taxes.

As the battle continues in Washington over how to avert a default on the government’s debt obligations, the possibility of imminent tax increases seems to be fading.

President Barack Obama and Speaker of the House John Boehner, R-Ohio, made the case for their rival approaches to controlling the nation’s spiraling budget deficit as the clock ticks down to the August 2 deadline for raising the debt ceiling to avoid an unprecedented default on the national debt.

IMGCAP(1)]There is a fuzzy line between a worker who is properly classified as an employee and a worker who is properly classified as an independent contractor.

The Internal Revenue is granting relief to people who have been burdened with the old tax debts of their estranged spouses by eliminating the two-year limit on requests for innocent spouse relief.