Tax practice

House Minority Leader John Boehner, R-Ohio, pushed for an extension of the Bush tax cuts on Tuesday, but questioned the need to pass over 70 other tax break extensions that failed to pass in the Senate in June.

California Attorney General Jerry Brown has filed a $34 million lawsuit against TV’s “Tax Lady” Roni Deutch for orchestrating a "heartless scheme" that swindled thousands of people facing serious and expensive tax collection problems with the IRS.

The owner of an Anchorage accounting and tax prep business has been indicted on charges that she engaged in a scheme to defraud her clients and her own family members of nearly $1 million.

Some $203 million in funding under last year’s Recovery Act for the Internal Revenue Service to reprogram its computer systems and update tax forms, publications and customer service may be at risk due to inadequate oversight, according to a new government report.

The Internal Revenue Service has published Notice 2010-58, which provides guidance in Q& A format under Section 13 of the Worker, Homeownership, and Business Assistance Act of 2009, which allows taxpayers to elect a three, four, or year-year net operating loss carryback instead of a normal two-year carryback.

The Congressional Budget Office estimated that the federal budget deficit for 2010 will exceed $1.3 trillion—$71 billion below last year's total and $27 billion lower than the amount that CBO projected in March 2010, when it issued its previous estimate, but that projection is predicated on the Bush tax cuts and other tax breaks expiring.

An Internal Revenue Service agent has pleaded guilty in a federal court in St. Paul, Minn., to soliciting and receiving a $9,700 bribe.

My guess is that there’s at least a 50-50 chance that the new Form 1099 reporting mandate will be repealed or modified before it goes into effect. On almost anyone’s benefit-burden scale, the burdens far outweigh the benefits.

The Internal Revenue Service issued proposed regulations on Thursday to significantly increase the number of electronic transactions between taxpayers and the federal government.

The Internal Revenue Service said Thursday that its new online application system for compensated tax return preparers is expected to go live in mid-September, and that the fee will total $64.25 to receive a Preparer Tax Identification Number.

The Internal Revenue Service has released an updated Form 720, the Quarterly Federal Excise Tax Return, to reflect the new 10 percent excise tax on indoor tanning salons in the health care reform bill.

Congresswoman Shelley Berkley, D-Nev., has introduced legislation that would provide additional assistance for workers who have exhausted their unemployment insurance and are living in states like Nevada with elevated unemployment rates.

A federal appeals court has ruled against New York City in its bid to collect about $47 million in property taxes from two foreign governments that have been using parts of their United Nations missions for non-diplomatic purposes.

Sen. Bill Nelson, D-Fla., has proposed a set of tax breaks to encourage investment in the commercial space industry as a way to cushion the blow from recent cutbacks in the space program.

A former manager at Jackson Hewitt has admitted to falsifying more than 52 tax returns.

Senator Debbie Stabenow, D-Mich., introduced a bill earlier this month that would cut taxes for businesses that hire new workers who have been looking for work the longest and provide emergency assistance for struggling families looking for work by creating an additional tier of benefits for those who have exhausted their unemployment insurance benefits.

The Internal Revenue Service has taken steps to prepare for procurements made under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, but lacked the necessary controls to ensure the procurements would comply with new requirements, according to a new government audit.

A group of Democratic senators has written to the chair of the Securities and Exchange Commission urging the SEC to require more complete and accurate corporate accounting disclosures, especially of off-balance sheet transactions.

The Congressional Research Service recently commented in its report, "Tax Gap: Misclassification of Employees as Independent Contractors," that tackling the problem of misclassification of workers "would reduce federal, state and local tax gaps and provide other important benefits."

IRS WANTS INPUT ON NEW 1099