Tax practice

A funny thing has been happening with the $7,500 plug-in electric vehicle tax credits that GM has been dangling before prospective buyers of its Chevrolet Volt: In many cases dealers rather than customers have been getting the tax breaks.

The Treasury Department and the Internal Revenue Service have proposed a set of changes to the New Markets Tax Credit program to encourage more money to go toward non-real estate businesses located in low-income communities.

The Internal Revenue Service has given taxpayers an extra 90 days to provide a voluntary disclosure of their offshore bank accounts if they have made a “good faith” attempt to gather the necessary materials.

The Internal Revenue Service has invited the public to comment on its plans to begin administering competency examinations for registered tax return preparers.

Even though the Internal Revenue Service hired 1,515 new revenue officers between June 2009 and February 2010, the agency still faces challenges keeping pace with attrition and an increasing workload.

The former owner of a popular tax law practice that was shut down under pressure from the California Attorney General has been hit with a $183,000 tax lien by the Internal Revenue Service.

The Internal Revenue Service has issued a notice seeking out businesses that have the necessary expertise to provide a registration and tracking system for providers of continuing education courses for tax return preparers, but the deadline for applying is Monday.

Rep. Jim McDermott, D-Wash., has introduced bipartisan legislation that aims to bring parity and equal treatment under the Tax Code for health plan beneficiaries who are domestic partners and non-spouse dependents.

Maybe it was the time of day. Or maybe I was just lucky. That’s what the CPA who prepares my tax return told me when we were able to reach the Philadelphia office of the IRS twice in a row, to speak with someone about some pesky notices I had been receiving.

The Internal Revenue Service is asking for public comments on its redesigned Form 990, which requires tax-exempt organizations to answer questions about executive compensation and other matters.

CCH has enhanced its IntelliConnect tax and accounting research service with a Categorized View that allows results to be viewed according to document type.

The House Ways and Means Committee heard from a panel of corporate finance executives during a hearing on how business tax reform can encourage job creation.

With the start of hurricane season, the Internal Revenue Service is encouraging individuals and businesses to safeguard themselves and their tax records against natural disasters by following a few simple steps.

A dozen multinational corporations paid an effective tax rate of negative 1.5 percent on billions of dollars in profits while reaping billions in taxpayer subsidies.

As the economy picks up to yield-reduced investment risk, and as an increase in tax rates continues to threaten, the benefits of Section 1202 qualified small-business stock deserve some attention. From both the perspective of the investor seeking to maximize after-tax yields and the entrepreneur seeking additional capital, the 2010 Tax Relief Act's extension of the 100 percent exclusion of gain from Section 1202 stock for an additional year, through Dec. 31, 2011, is an opportunity worth revisiting. What remains constant under any second look, however, is that Section 1202 requires patience: It will take a taxpayer at least five years to see how the story ends after any particular acquisition of qualified stock.

IRS BEGINS ENFORCING RETURN PREPARER RULES

There have been a number of surveys conducted that attempt to measure the desirability of doing or investing in business in one state versus another.

An agreement to raise the debt ceiling in Congress appears to be linked increasingly to a deal to cut both taxes and Medicare spending.

The Internal Revenue Service and the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network have granted a one-year extension on the deadline for filing a Report of Bank and Financial Accounts form, or FBAR, but only for a small subset of individuals who have only signature authority.

The Internal Revenue Service has issued a notice restricting the use of the term “registered tax return preparer” until tax preparers can be officially tested and checked.