Tax practice

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.

The real estate developer who is trying to set up a controversial Islamic cultural center two blocks away from Ground Zero reportedly owes New York City over $224,270 in back property taxes for the location.

Z Street, a pro-Israel nonprofit organization, has filed a lawsuit in federal court charging that the IRS violated its First Amendment rights by delaying its application for tax-exempt status because the IRS allegedly needs to consider whether a group’s views on Israel differ from those of the current presidential administration.

The Justice Department has filed suit to stop a Pasadena man from promoting a tax fraud scheme involving sham pension contributions and welfare benefit plans.

While there may be some truth to the observation that August is a slow news month, the start of World War I in early August of 1914, as well as the deaths of both Elvis and Marilyn in August, qualify as exceptions. And for small to midsized CPA firms, the hearings earlier this week on tax preparer registration can be considered newsworthy, though perhaps slightly less eventful.

Taxpayers with complex tax dispute cases before the California State Board of Equalization were more likely to win their cases if they or their representatives made campaign contributions to the elected board members, either directly or through political action committees.

Vice President Joe Biden held a roundtable discussion with workers and small business owners at Pete’s New Haven Style Apizza, a local restaurant in Washington, D.C., that has benefited from the small business provisions in the Recovery Act, as he argued for passage of a bill that would provide tax breaks and a $30 billion lending fund for small businesses.

The Internal Revenue Service’s Criminal Investigation Division showed signs of improvement in meeting its objectives for combating tax evasion, corporate fraud, financial crime and even terrorism, according to a new report.

IMGCAP(1)]As more people have become aware of the tax burden and unintended consequences resulting from the provision in the health care reform law mandating expanded Form 1099 information reporting, a consensus has been building to repeal this provision. The only current debate appears to be “how?”

The National Society of Accountants and the American Institute of CPAs testified before the Internal Revenue Service on the agency’s proposals for registering, testing and requiring continuing education for paid tax preparers.

The Internal Revenue Service plans to do more to ensure that tax-exempt political organizations fully report their contributions and expenditures to the IRS on time, according to a new government report.