Tax practice

The Internal Revenue Service is planning another series of tax forums at several major cities this year.

Nearly 19 million tax returns have been filed with the Internal Revenue Service from home computers so far this year, an increase of almost 6 percent compared to the number of returns from the same time last year, the IRS said Friday.

Tax reform for business isn’t just about lowering the corporate tax rate. That’s what Patricia Thompson, chair of the AICPA’s Tax Executive Committee, told the House Ways and Means Subcommittee on Select Revenue Measures yesterday.

The House approved a repeal of the expanded 1099 information reporting requirements by a vote of 314-112 on Thursday.

The House moved one step closer to repealing the expanded 1099 information reporting requirements in the Affordable Care Act and Small Business Jobs Act on Wednesday by approving a controversial offset to the cost of the repeal.

Senators Scott Brown, R-Mass., and Bill Nelson, D-Fla., introduced a bill Wednesday that would give taxpayers an itemized receipt showing where their money is being spent and how much the federal government borrows every year.

A former seasonal employee with the Internal Revenue Service has been indicted by a federal grand jury on charges of computer fraud for changing information on IRS computer systems after her friends and relatives paid her to give them bogus First-Time Homebuyer Tax Credits.

The Senate Finance Committee convened a hearing Tuesday aimed at making the Tax Code fairer and simpler, while making U.S. businesses more competitive.

The Internal Revenue Service has released the limitations on depreciation deductions for owners of passenger automobiles first placed in service by the taxpayer during calendar year 2011.

The Internal Revenue Service needs to improve its procedures for processing cases involving taxpayers who fail to properly disclose reportable transactions, according to a new government report.

The Internal Revenue Service has been seriously pursuing reduction of the tax gap associated with unreported foreign assets and income for a few years now. The effort has included efforts to secure information from foreign banks, credit card issuers, tax return disclosure and voluntary disclosure by taxpayers.

SENATE COMMITTEE APPROVES TAX PATENT BAN

While efforts at tax reform seem to crop up at fairly regular intervals in Washington — and just as routinely fail to produce any results — the current effort under President Obama has generated enough optimism that some are already attempting to pick potential winners and losers.

The Internal Revenue Service has begun conducting a survey examining the risks associated with electronic tax preparation and filing to gain information on taxpayer data protection practices.

Refunds totaling more than $1.1 billion may be waiting for nearly 1.1 million people who did not file a federal income tax return for 2007, according to the Internal Revenue Service.

A group calling itself US Uncut organized a series of protests over the weekend at Bank of America branches across the country to protest large corporations with unpaid income taxes.

Responding to press reports that the Obama administration is considering hitting small business with more tax hikes, U.S. Senator Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, ranking member of the Senate Finance Committee, called on the White House to take these tax increases off the table that threaten to “destroy the economic recovery our nation deserves.”

The Internal Revenue Service is allowing U.S. citizens and residents who also live in Haiti and the Ivory Coast to exclude their foreign earned income and housing costs from their 2010 gross income even if they don’t meet the normal eligibility requirements.

The House has tentatively scheduled a vote on legislation that would repeal the expanded 1099 information reporting requirements passed by Congress last year.

Whether or not the Obama administration budget proposal to add some clarity to worker classification sees the light of day, the employee vs. independent contractor issue will surely be undergoing increased scrutiny.