Tax practice

Inmates at a county prison just outside Key West, Fla., received up to $100,000 from the IRS after filing for over $1 million in fraudulent tax refunds.

The Senate’s latest stimulus effort, a “jobs bill” named the Hiring Incentives to Restore Employment Act, passed this week with a 70 to 28 margin.

Liberty Tax Service has reported a 10.2 percent increase in the total number of tax returns filed as of Feb. 15, 2010, and a 28.1 percent increase in revenue generated, a marked contrast with rival H&R Block.

The Senate Finance Committee held a hearing to discuss trade and tax issues relating to small business job creation.

Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., and Judd Gregg, R-N.H., have introduced legislation to eliminate many of the exemptions, deductions, credits and other tax breaks in the Tax Code.

Lacking Congress’ ability to address problems with deficit spending, financially squeezed state legislatures across the country are considering desperate tax increases that would have been politically unthinkable just a few years ago.

H&R Block blamed the recession for a drop-off in tax filings so far this season.

The Senate approved a job creation bill Wednesday after 13 Republicans agreed to vote for the measure, which includes tax breaks for businesses that hire or retain employees.

The Senate voted to consider a $15 billion job creation bill after five Republican senators agreed to overcome a filibuster on the measure, which would provide tax breaks to companies that hire and retain employees.

One of the daughters of the pilot who crashed his plane into an IRS facility in Austin, Texas, killing an IRS employee and injuring 12 others, said she hoped his actions would send a message to the government.

The White House has published the health care reform package that President Obama plans to present to Republican and Democratic congressional leaders at the summit on Thursday.

New York State’s budget deficit and dysfunctional legislative process may prompt the government to withhold state income tax refunds, according to embattled Governor David Paterson.

The Treasury Department announced plans to extend and expand the New Markets Tax Credit with a proposal in the fiscal year 2011 budget to provide $5 billion in credits to speed recovery in hard-hit communities.

The Internal Revenue Service reminded taxpayers that the Feb. 28 deadline is fast approaching for Haiti earthquake relief donations that can be deducted this tax season.

Former New York City police commissioner Bernard Kerik, who led the police department during the 9/11 attack, was sentenced to a four-year prison sentence after pleading guilty to tax fraud and other charges.

A man angry with the Internal Revenue Service flew a small airplane into a building on Thursday morning in Austin, Texas, in which several IRS offices are located, killing an IRS employee and himself.

Taxpayers overwhelmingly agree with the Internal Revenue Service’s plans to require tax preparers to meet competency and ethical standards, according to a new report by the IRS Oversight Board.

A Virginia doctor has pleaded guilty to conspiracy involving an undeclared Swiss bank account reportedly at HSBC, indicating that investigators are widening their probe of secret Swiss bank accounts beyond UBS.

U.S. taxation of international operations was named as the top business tax concern in 2010, according to a poll of senior tax executives at multinational companies and trade associations.

As part of the IRS's continuing efforts to require greater disclosure of tax positions and strategies on returns, it recently released new, mandatory disclosure rules for grouping passive activities. Rev. Proc. 2010-13 for the first time mandates that passive-activity groupings and regrouping, as required under Code Sec. 469 regulations, be disclosed on the taxpayer's return.