Tax practice

A new bill from a pair of Democratic senators would eliminate a tax break on corporate stock options.

The Internal Revenue Service advised truckers and other owners of heavy highway vehicles that their next federal highway use tax return, usually due Aug. 31, will instead be due on Nov. 30, 2011.

A federal court has permanently barred Howard Musin, his wife Jill Schwartz-Musin, who formerly worked as an IRS special agent, and their three companies from preparing federal tax returns for others.

The Treasury Department and the Internal Revenue Service issued a notice Thursday announcing plans to phase in the requirements of the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act and explaining how foreign financial institutions can comply with the U.S. law.

The National Society of Accountants has submitted comments to the Internal Revenue Service about plans for a tax preparer competency examination, supporting the intended purpose of verifying the “minimal competency” of tax preparers.

The Internal Revenue Service does not always promptly and properly notify taxpayers of inadvertent disclosures of their personal information, according to a new government report.

Congress’s two tax-writing committees convened a rare joint hearing Wednesday to consider whether the Tax Code is providing too many incentives for accumulating debt as opposed to equity.

The Internal Revenue Service is urging taxpayers to guard against being misled by unscrupulous individuals trying to persuade them to file false claims for tax credits or rebates.

Sen. Carl Levin, D-Mich., and several other senators have introduced a bill to close offshore tax loopholes and strengthen offshore tax enforcement.

Amazon.com is trying to get a referendum on the California ballot to get the recently enacted online sales tax law reversed.

The Internal Revenue Service plans to send letters to approximately 100,000 tax return preparers who it said Tuesday failed to follow its new registration requirements.

Congressman John Tierney, D-Mass., has introduced a bill that would eliminate about 27 different tax expenditures, including tax breaks for energy companies.

A federal requirement that the tax returns of large corporations be filed and processed electronically has resulted in cost savings to the corporations and the government, according to a new government report.

President Obama challenged Republicans on Monday to offer him their tax reform proposals for resolving the debt ceiling dilemma as he pushed for a deal that the two parties could agree to before the August 2 deadline on raising the debt limit.

Thomson Reuters has released GAAP Reporter on its Checkpoint online tax and accounting research service.

The American Institute of CPAs has written a letter to the Internal Revenue Service offering to help develop the IRS exam for registered tax return preparers by leveraging the AICPA’s own experience with the Uniform CPA Exam.

A bipartisan pair of lawmakers have introduced a bill that aims to ensure better tax compliance on the part of professional employer organizations and protect small businesses.

The Internal Revenue Service has been updating its assessment of the extent to which underreported employment taxes are contributing to the tax gap, but it may not be using the right methodology to revise its numbers.

The unemployment rate climbed a tenth of a percentage point to 9.2 percent after employers added only 18,000 jobs in June, the lowest level in nine months.

A bipartisan pair of senators have announced a compromise on ending the Volumetric Ethanol Excise Tax Credit at the end of this month.