Tax practice

A Florida prison inmate who allegedly ran a scheme to defraud the Internal Revenue Service of approximately $115,000 in tax refunds has pleaded guilty.

House Financial Services Committee Chairman Barney Frank, D-Mass., said he anticipates an exemption for small and midsized public companies from Sarbanes-Oxley Section 404(b) requirements for independent audits of their internal controls to remain in the final version of the financial regulatory reform bill.

The health care reform bill included a provision for extra information reporting that could mean many businesses will need to file hundreds more 1099 types of forms to help the government close the tax gap.

Extending the 2001 and 2003 federal income tax cuts would sharply increase the national debt, even if the extensions were limited to individuals earning below $200,000, according to a new report by the Pew Economic Policy Group.

The Supreme Court declined to hear Textron’s appeal in a key tax case, letting stand a lower court decision that allows the Internal Revenue Service to demand legal and tax work papers from companies.

The bipartisan leaders of the Senate Finance Committee have introduced legislation to create job opportunities for veterans returning home from war by providing tax credits for businesses that hire them.

The Internal Revenue Service has left the 2011 inflation-adjusted amounts for health savings accounts unchanged from 2010, citing the Consumer Price Index.

The Internal Revenue Service needs to screen and monitor electronic filing providers more carefully, according to a new government report.

Codification of the economic substance doctrine by the Health Care and Education Reconciliation Act of 2010 has produced a palpable level of anxiety among many tax practitioners over how the new law will be applied to a variety of tax strategies.

TREASURY REQUIRES MORE ELECTRONIC TRANSACTIONS

Accountants are squarely on the front line of the problems with the 2010 estate tax hiatus, according to practitioners and estate-planning attorneys.

Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus, D-Mont., plans to convene a hearing to consider White House proposals for reducing waste and overpayments in the unemployment insurance program.

The Treasury Department released new guidelines for applying for tax credits to fund promising new therapies, with small medical research firms eligible to receive up to $5 million each out of a $1 billion pie.

Tax Credit Company president Brandon Edwards calls the HIRE Act a “game changer” for mid-market and smaller companies that now can take advantage of the hiring incentive program.

The Senate voted last week to approve a historic financial regulatory reform bill that would make sweeping changes in how the financial system is regulated.

Connecticut Governor Jodi Rell has vetoed legislation that would have taxed bonuses paid to people who work for financial companies that received federal bailouts.

The Center for Audit Quality and the Council of Institutional Investors are protesting two proposed amendments to the financial regulatory reform bill that would exempt smaller public companies from compliance with Sarbanes-Oxley Section 404(b) audits of their internal controls.

Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus, D-Mont., and House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Sander Levin, D-Mich., have introduced legislation that would extend unemployment insurance and the 65 percent COBRA health insurance subsidy for the unemployed through the end of the year, as well as many expiring tax breaks.

Weaknesses in the Internal Revenue Service’s employment tax compliance program could cost the U.S. Treasury $131 million in Social Security and Medicare taxes over the next five years, according to a new report.

The Internal Revenue Service has mostly overcome past problems in following legal and internal guidelines when conducting seizures of taxpayers’ property, but it failed to comply with the legal requirements in at least some instances, according to a new report.