Tax practice

Investor confidence in the U.S.capital markets declined slightly, but fell even more sharply for marketsoutside the U.S., according to a new survey by the Center for Audit Quality.

The Internal Revenue Service has helmed a new video series, “Your Guide to an IRS Audit,” which follows three hypothetical small business taxpayers step-by-step through the audit process.

President Obama is proposing to expand and simplify the permanent research and experimentation tax credit, increasing the rate of the simpler form of the credit 17 percent to simplify the process for businesses.

President Obama has not yet formally unveiled his plans for stirring up the sleeping job market through business tax breaks and infrastructure spending, but his ideas are already provoking skepticism.

The Internal Revenue Service has released a draft version of the form that small businesses and tax-exempt organizations will use to calculate the small-business health care tax credit when they file tax returns next year.

The National Society of Accountants has written to Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner and the Internal Revenue Service urging them not to agree to calls by the American Institute of CPAs to exempt non-signing preparers at CPA firms from the IRS’s new tax preparer registration requirements.

The Internal Revenue Service’s Criminal Investigation division is reportedly examining the books of the former Planned Parenthood Golden Gate, which lost its affiliation with the national Planned Parenthood last Friday amid questions about the group’s financial administration.

President Obama is scheduled to deliver a speech Wednesday in which he will reportedly propose a series of business tax cuts, along with new infrastructure spending.

The Internal Revenue Service has issued guidance on the purchases of over-the-counter medicines and drugs with flexible spending arrangements and health savings accounts next year in light of the changes in the health care reform bill.

A jury has entered a guilty verdict against a former BDO Seidman partner who advised a client on how to include false items on his joint income tax returns for three years in a row.

H&R Block is cutting costs and will be closing more offices before next tax season, allowing the company to reduce its continuing losses.

It’s been five years since former Senator Connie Mack, then chairman of the President’s Advisory Panel on Federal Tax Reform, said the panel would “take a fresh look at the existing Tax Code and will formulate options for making the tax system simple, fair and productive.”

The Treasury Department said it would launch a new pilot program next tax season for people without bank accounts, directly depositing their tax refunds in special accounts that they will be able to access with debit cards.

The IRS’s increased emphasis on enforcement, rising caseloads, the economy, and recent legislative changes are among the many challenges confronting the Taxpayer Advocate Service, according to a new report.

CCH has begun offering outsourced sales and use tax return preparation and filing services to corporate accounting and tax departments.

The Internal Revenue Service lost an estimated $90 million in revenue for tax year 2008 because of erroneously claimed foreign earned income tax exclusions, according to a new government report.

New York and Philadelphia have been provoking the ire of their residents lately by levying taxes on two formerly sacrosanct local products.

Taxpayers will be able to receive their income tax refunds on a reloadable prepaid Western Union MoneyWise MasterCard next tax season as a result of a new agreement that CCH Small Firm Services has struck with Western Union.

President Barack Obama blasted Senate Republicans for obstructing his administration’s top legislative priority: a bill providing tax cuts and a $32 billion lending fund for small businesses to spur job growth.

The Internal Revenue Service anticipates that the number of individuals who will request Preparer Tax Identification Numbers will swell to 1.2 million after its new rules for registration of paid tax preparers go into effect at the end of the year.