Tax practice

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.

Sally Louise Crystal, the owner of a Costa Mesa, Calif., business called Sal the 1040 Gal, was arrested Tuesday on charges of preparing false tax returns.

H&R Block has closed about 400 of its “under-performing” tax offices out of its network of 11,000 retail tax locations, and eliminated approximately 400 positions throughout the organization.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., has filed a cloture motion on the financial regulatory reform bill as he pushes for the debate to end this week, but with hundreds of amendments still waiting to be decided, he may not get his wish.

IRS Commissioner Doug Shulman indicated that small charities that missed the May 17 filing deadline for filing their Form 990 may still be able to keep their tax-exempt status.

The Internal Revenue Service has posted a form on its Web site that employers can use to claim a payroll tax exemption for hiring new employees under the recently passed HIRE Act.

State tax revenues fell 8.9 percent nationwide from fiscal year 2008 to 2009, with 45 states seeing a decline in state-level tax collections, according to a Tax Foundation analysis of new U.S. Census data.

The Internal Revenue Service needs to improve the security of a Web portal used by tax preparers to electronically file tax returns and submit and retrieve other tax-related information, according to a new report.

The Internal Revenue Service has issued new guidance on the recently passed health care reform bill to clarify that small businesses receiving state health care tax credits can still qualify for the full federal health care tax credit, and they can receive the health care tax credit not only for regular health insurance but also for add-on dental and vision coverage.

The Internal Revenue Service needs to beef up tax compliance efforts for nonresident aliens who earn money in the U.S., according to a new government report.

BNA Tax & Accounting has introduced State Tax Nexus Evaluator, a research product that helps businesses and practitioners determine income tax nexus for 50 U.S. states, Washington, D.C., and New York City.