Tax practice

In almost every narcotics-related crime the underlying motivation is money, because money is the key to furthering the illegal drug trade, whether domestic or foreign.

The lame duck session slated to begin in mid-November leaves Congress a massive amount of unfinished business.

The Internal Revenue Service could collect more taxes from forgiven mortgage debt by expanding its information reporting and revising some of its forms, according to a new study from the General Accountability Office.

The Internal Revenue Service responded to only 339 out of 350,000 calls made to a special phone line it has set up for hearing- and speech-impaired taxpayers, according to a new government report.

The Internal Revenue Service has issued guidance to provide relief to taxpayers who have suffered property losses due to the corrosive effects of imported drywall installed in their homes between 2001 and 2009.

The Tax & Accounting business of Thomson Reuters has released new Competency Model software for its Checkpoint Learning system that provides self-assessment tools to measure proficiency in the subjects studied by users, along with roadmaps for career development.

Two New York City tax preparers are facing prison time and the payment of substantial sums of money in a pair of recent cases.

The American Institute of CPAs and 18 other groups have written a letter to congressional leaders encouraging them to ban tax strategy patents before adjourning.

Senate Finance Committee chairman Max Baucus, D-Mont., has sent a letter to IRS Commissioner Doug Shulman requesting him to investigate the use of tax-exempt groups for political advocacy.

The Internal Revenue Service has released guidance on the expanded adoption credit that is available for tax year 2010 as a result of the Affordable Care Act, along with a draft version of the form that taxpayers will use to claim it.

Senate Republicans blocked a bill on Tuesday that would have denied tax breaks to companies that move jobs offshore and provide companies with a two-year holiday from their share of Social Security payroll tax withholding for each employee they hire to replace a worker at a foreign-based facility.

The Internal Revenue Service has issued final regulations requiring paid tax return preparers to register with the IRS to obtain a Preparer Tax Identification Number and made available a new online application system for getting a PTIN.

The Senate debated a bill on Monday that would give companies a two-year holiday from their share of Social Security payroll withholding for each employee they hire to replace a worker at a foreign-based facility.

President Obama signed the Small Business Jobs Act into law on Monday, providing $12 billion in tax breaks and a $30 billion lending fund for small businesses.

The Internal Revenue Service said that individuals and businesses will no longer receive paper income tax packages in the mail.

Senate Democrats plan to hold a vote on the Bush tax cuts extension soon after the mid-term election in November, congressional leaders indicated.

Moving into this year's year-end tax planning season, tax practitioners are faced with a considerable degree of uncertainty caused by congressional indecision. Not only does the uncertainty as this column goes to press surround whether a long list of extenders and small-business tax breaks will in fact apply retroactively to Jan. 1, 2010; it equally involves whether the massive EGTRRA '01 tax cuts, due to expire at the end of 2010, will be extended into 2011. Strategies to prepare for a probable change in the 2010 tax rate structure for 2011 are the focus of this present column, in part because the outcome is somewhat more predictable than the fate of the extenders and small-business relief, and in part because it may take more preparation for clients to make plans to meet the challenges of changed tax rates.

CORPORATE RETURNS SLIDE

Kaysville, Utah

Thomson Reuters has acquired TaxSimple, one of the last independent software companies in the tax software market.