Tax practice

The Congressional Budget Office has released an estimate of the budgetary effects of President Obama’s proposed budget for fiscal year 2011 and found that some of the tax cuts could add another $3 trillion to the national debt over the next 10 years.

The Internal Revenue Service has outlined a safe harbor method to report a gain or loss for taxpayers who initiate deferred like-kind exchanges but fail to complete the exchange because a qualified intermediary defaults on its obligation to acquire and transfer the replacement property.

The Internal Revenue Service has released the 2010 update to its Allowable Living Expense Standards, which it applies to taxpayers who need to delay full payment of delinquent taxes.

The Internal Revenue Service is giving interested parties more time to submit comments on its recent proposal to require companies to disclose information about their uncertain tax positions.

Rep. Sander Levin, D-Mich., has been chosen as acting chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, a day after Charles Rangel, D-N.Y., took a leave of absence from the leadership of the powerful tax-writing committee.

After two years of paying down debt and skipping family vacations, many Americans cautiously intend to start spending their tax refunds once again.

Massachusetts tax attorney Kevin Kilduff, who formerly worked for the IRS Office of Chief Counsel, has been barred from practicing before the IRS for 48 months for failing to file a federal tax return and filing another five returns late.

Under pressure from Congress, the Internal Revenue Service has once again extended its moratorium on collection enforcement actions on certain types of tax shelter penalties.

House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Charles Rangel, D-N.Y., has temporarily stepped aside as chairman of the powerful tax-writing committee amid mounting calls for his resignation.

A former CPA who now owns a medical supply company has been charged in a $7.6 million health care fraud scheme, along with three other defendants.

The Internal Revenue Service and the Securities and Exchange Commission plan to collaborate more closely to monitor and regulate the municipal bond market and industry.

The Internal Revenue Service said it has unclaimed refunds totaling more than $1.3 billion awaiting nearly 1.4 million people who did not file a federal income tax return for 2006, including over $150 million in the state of California alone.

The Internal Revenue Service has made an administrative determination to accept the position that medical residents are excepted from FICA payroll taxes based on the student exception for tax periods ending before April 1, 2005, when new IRS regulations went into effect.

New York City’s Department of Consumer Affairs has investigated nearly 800 income tax preparers in a month-long investigation and issued 2,010 charges for violations, including illegally advertising refund anticipation loans as “instant” or “rapid” refunds.

IMGCAP(1)]To gather information for law enforcement, particularly drugs and organized crime, Congress has long required U.S. persons owning or having signatory authority over foreign financial accounts to file a report with the Department of the Treasury disclosing information about the accounts.

A California tax preparer was sentenced to more than five years in prison and ordered to pay $377,468 in restitution after she was convicted of tax fraud.

Senate Democrats have introduced legislation to extend unemployment benefits, a 65 percent subsidy for COBRA health insurance for the unemployed, and a large set of tax breaks that expired at the end of last year.

The Internal Revenue Service has released statistics indicating a drop-off in both the number of tax returns filed for 2008, and the amount of income, showing the effects of the recession.

The Internal Revenue Service has temporarily suspended the requirement to file a Report of Foreign Bank and Financial Accounts for the 2009 and earlier calendar years, for people who are not U.S. citizens, residents or domestic entities.

The Justice Department has asked a federal court to stop two Miami-based tax return preparers from improperly claiming the First-Time Home Buyer Credit.