Tax practice

Last week, much of the media fawned over the president'sfirst 100 days in office to such a degree it's a wonder outlets such as the NewYork Times or MSNBC did not require its reporters to don drool bibs.

Sixty-one percent of senior financial executives believe their companies’ total effective state tax rate will increase, according to a survey by Grant Thornton.

A Southern California couple has been indicted on charges of conspiracy to file false tax returns, mail fraud and identity theft after they were found to have filed for refunds of over $300,000 using stolen identities.

A record total of 90.6 million tax returns were filed electronically this year, with more than a third coming from home computers.

Both the House and Senate approved President Barack Obama’s $3.4 trillion spending plan on his 100th day in office, but largely along party lines.

Rep. Joe Donnelly, D-Ind., has introduced a bill to lessen the heavy penalties imposed by the Internal Revenue Service on taxpayers who use so-called “listed” tax shelter transactions.

A tax preparer couple has been arrested for filing false tax returns and diverting their clients’ refund money to their own bank accounts.

It seems almost obligatory to write a story about the 100th day of the Obama administration, but when you’re in the news business, you ignore these kinds of artificial milestones at your own peril.

Swiss President Hans-Rudolf Merz told a news conference that he had talked with U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner over the weekend about dropping a case against UBS over its tax shelters in return for signing a new tax treaty between the two nations.

H&R Block reported that the total number of tax returns prepared as of April 15 fell by 667,000, or 3.1 percent, compared to last year, excluding economic stimulus filers, but Block still earned a record amount on fees.

The Internal Revenue Service has signed a tax-processing contract with a company that has admitted to having information on 1.5 million payment card holders and 1.1 million Social Security numbers stolen by computer hackers.

The Senate Finance Committee heard from a panel of experts about the pros and cons of skewing energy tax benefits toward one technology, such as wind power, at the expense of another.

The Tax & Accounting business of Thomson Reuters has started TaxWatch University, a tax staff-training program that combines the company’s AuditWatch University multi-level curriculum design with the in-depth taxation knowledge of the experts in the company’s PPC division.

David Kellermann, the acting chief financial officer of mortgage finance concern Freddie Mac, was found dead at his home of an apparent suicide.

A Utah attorney who hasn’t filed a tax return since the 1980s was fined $250,000 and sentenced to three years in prison for impeding the Internal Revenue Service.

Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus, D-Mont., praised President Obama’s picks for chief counsel of the Internal Revenue Service and assistant secretary for financial stability.

More than half of the business professionals polled during a recent Deloitte webcast said the level of transparency the Obama administration promises to attach to bailout spending is not possible.

Bernard Madoff’s accountant, David Friehling, is facing an extra month of uncertainty over his legal status after prosecutors filed a continuance with the court.

Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., along with the five New York City District Attorneys, has unveiled The Fighting Real Estate Fraud Act of 2009, a measure to help fight mortgage fraud scams across the country.

Former CPA Dan Wise has been arrested and charged with operating a $67 million fraud.