Tax practice

The Internal Revenue Service will be taking additional steps to check on whether sole proprietors are hiding sources of income during field audits.

As one of the unfortunate household casualties of the current contract imbroglio between East Coast cable and professional sports titan Cablevision and FOX Network, I've resigned myself to the inevitable fact that I'll not only miss all my beloved Giants' games for the foreseeable future, but the World Series and "House" as well.

President Barack Obama reiterated his proposals for cuts in business and individual taxes and called on Republicans and Democrats to work together after the elections.

President Barack Obama visited a Maryland factory Friday and promoted his proposal for allowing businesses to deduct the entire cost of their purchases of new equipment through the end of next year.

The Internal Revenue Service has decided that breast pumps and other breast feeding supplies cannot be paid for with money from mothers’ tax-exempt flexible spending accounts and health reimbursement accounts.

The Internal Revenue Service has posted information on how tax-exempt organizations can claim the Small Business Health Care Tax Credit.

The Internal Revenue Service has released additional information on how medical residents may be eligible for a refund on the employment taxes withheld from their paychecks by teaching hospitals.

“The First-Time Homebuyer Credit will jump up and bite you in the shorts at least six times this next tax season,” Doug Van Der Aa told attendees at the Thomson Reuters Users Conference.

Reports have surfaced that the federal debt commission (officially known as the National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform) is considering the heretofore unimaginable elimination of popular tax breaks, including deductions on mortgage interest, as part of its report due on December 1.

The Internal Revenue Service faced challenges last tax season verifying taxpayers’ eligibility for some of the newer stimulus-related tax credits, allowing 125,762 individuals to receive nearly $111.4 million in erroneous Recovery Act-related tax benefits, according to a new government report.

The Internal Revenue Service said the cost-of-living adjustments affecting the dollar limitations for pension plans and other retirement- related items for tax year 2011 will mostly remain unchanged, except for a few small inflation adjustments.

The Internal Revenue Service has started accepting taxpayer records in electronic format from small businesses using Intuit’s QuickBooks and Sage’s Peachtree accounting software for audits and examinations.

The Taxpayer Advocacy Panel, a federal advisory committee of 101 citizen volunteers across the country, has released its annual report, with recommendations that include calling for the IRS to protect against identity theft by allowing taxpayers to “lock” their accounts when no tax returns are required.

The Internal Revenue Service’s comparative study of its private debt collection program was not designed soundly enough to support its decision to discontinue contracting out debt collection to private companies, according to a new report by the Government Accountability Office.

IRS Commissioner Doug Shulman indicated that the IRS is continuing to refine its new requirements for tax preparer registration, testing and continuing education, and announced that the IRS would waive the requirement for continuing education in the first year of implementing the new program, as well as set up a new office at the IRS dedicated to tax return preparers.

Businesses that have developed complex networks of related trusts and partnerships to evade taxes are making it difficult for the Internal Revenue Service’s efforts to close the tax gap, according to a new government report.

The Internal Revenue Service released information Tuesday on the procedures that foreigners and U.S. citizens without a Social Security number because of religious objections can use to register as tax preparers.

A federal judge has ruled in favor of Amazon.com after the Seattle-based e-commerce giant sued to stop the North Carolina Department of Revenue from collecting personally identifiable information about its customers that could be linked to their purchases.

Craig Shaber, a practicing attorney from San Diego, has pleaded guilty to tax evasion in a case involving a series of shell companies that he set up with an accountant who pleaded guilty last year.

Nearly half the senior executives polled in a recent survey said they are most concerned about the prospect of providing a concise description of the uncertain tax positions of their companies to comply with the Internal Revenue Service’s new disclosure requirements.