Tax practice

The Justice Department has dismissed tax fraud charges against UBS after the Swiss bank complied with a deferred prosecution agreement that it signed last year.

President Barack Obama accused the Republican leadership in Congress of vowing to repeal the financial reform bill as the midterm elections approach next week.

The Internal Revenue Service has begun sending notifications to approximately 1 million tax return preparers to remind them that they must renew their Preparer Tax Identification Numbers if they are still paid preparers, and posted videos on YouTube in English, Spanish and American Sign Language.

Volunteers who prepare income tax returns at the Internal Revenue Service’s Volunteer Income Tax Assistance Program sites improved their accuracy during the 2010 filing season, according to a new report that found a 90 percent accuracy rate, compared to only 59 percent a year ago.

Recently issued proposed regulations on domestic series limited liability companies should help give taxpayers and their advisors a bit more confidence in using series LLCs as a method of dividing a business venture into a variety of units to accomplish a variety of objectives.

IRS PRIVATE LETTER RULINGS SHOULD GO OUT FASTER

It’s been five years since Connie Mack, as chair of President Bush’s Advisory Panel on Federal Tax Reform, said that it would “take a fresh look at the existing Tax Code and will formulate options for making the tax system simple, fair and productive.

Vice President Joe Biden indicated that the White House could be ready to make a deal with Republicans on expanding the level of income that would qualify for the Bush tax cuts extension.

Tax forms and other government documents will now be subject to a kind of literacy test, under a new government law that so far has not attracted a whole lot of attention.

Lambda Legal has published a short guide aimed at tax professionals and California’s registered domestic partners explaining the consequences of a significant shift in federal tax policy as they file their tax returns for 2010.

While we await the lame duck Congress to find out if and how much our taxes will rise next year, it might be well to remember that government — and the programs it loves to fund — will only keep growing until it runs out of funding. Hardly any government will willingly reduce programs, cut funding, or otherwise act within reasonable limits.

Mark Ernst, the former chairman and CEO of H&R Block who went on to become deputy commissioner for operations support at the Internal Revenue Service, will be leaving the IRS later this year, according to an announcement Thursday by IRS Commissioner Doug Shulman.

Tax preparer Kertena Seabrook has been sentenced to 27 months in prison and ordered to pay $171,152 in restitution after she was convicted on 20 counts of aiding and assisting in the preparation of false tax returns.

A senior executive of the Upper Manhattan Empowerment Zone who is also a tax preparer has pleaded guilty to submitting false and fraudulent tax returns to the Internal Revenue Service and cashing approximately $250,000 in fraudulently obtained tax refund checks.

States and localities continued to raise their sales tax rates last quarter in order to generate more revenue to close their budget deficits, according to a new report.

With only weeks to go before next month’s game-changing midterm Congressional elections, the accounting profession is in position to make record-breaking contributions to the campaigns of key House and Senate candidates.

An Internal Revenue Service advisory committee has issued a report calling for a number of changes in the IRS’s information reporting rules, including the controversial provision in the health care reform bill that mandates expanded 1099 information reporting for businesses.

The tax debt relief industry is searching for loopholes in a Federal Trade Commission rule that could eliminate its main source of revenue.

A pair of U.S. senators has written to IRS Commissioner Douglas Shulman and the heads of a dozen other federal agencies asking why they have erected roadblocks to investigative efforts of their agencies’ watchdogs, their inspectors general.

The National Association of Chain Drug Stores has sent a letter to the Internal Revenue Service asking it to delay rules implementing provisions in the health care reform bill that would prohibit the use of debit cards, such as those used in flexible spending accounts and health reimbursement accounts, to buy over-the-counter prescribed medications.