Tax practice

The Internal Revenue Service is looking for civic-minded volunteers to serve on the Taxpayer Advocacy Panel, which listens to taxpayers, identifies key issues and makes recommendations for improving IRS service.

In a hearing before the House Financial Services Committee, Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner asked lawmakers to grant the Treasury Department more power to seize failing financial firms.

From Accounting Technology editor Bob Scott’s most recent popular e-letter “Consulting Insights" comes this Random Thought: “I’ve decided if I were a public official, I would run government like a business, meaning I would invest in financial instruments, treat my employees as disposable, and pay out enormous and unmerited bonuses.”

Employees at the Internal Revenue Service are running up millions of dollars in charges on agency-issued telephone calling cards with little control over their spending.

Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, has asked Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to account for their retention bonus programs while the entities were losing money and even after they accepted taxpayer-funded bailouts.

The Congressional Budget Office has revised its projection of the 2009 deficit, adding another $400 million and bringing the total to a numbing $1.7 trillion.

The Obama administration has revealed the latest measure in its colossal financial rescue plan, enticing private investors to buy up to $1 trillion in troubled assets carried by banks.

A federal judge has for the second time rejected a class action lawsuit against the Free File Alliance, the group of tax software vendors who provide free software and electronic filing to low-income taxpayers.

The Internal Revenue Service has added three new forms for correcting errors on employment tax returns.

PayCyle said that it has implemented the payroll tax reduction included in the recently passed economic stimulus bill.

The Internal Revenue Service and a group of community partners plan to open their doors on Sat., March 21, to help people who need free tax preparation services, a question answered or a payment schedule arranged.

A federal court in Texas has ruled in favor of the Internal Revenue Service as it seeks $226.6 million worth of back taxes from Sir Allen Stanford, the banker who has been accused of defrauding investors of $8 billion.

In response to public outrage over the $165 million in bonuses awarded to AIG executives, the House voted 328 to 93 to levy a 90 percent tax on the money.

The question of how to pay for universal health care could lead to a troubling answer: taxing health benefits. Congress and the Obama administration will be weighing a variety of approaches in the coming months, with the goal of offering legislation before the August recess. Some legislative leaders, such as former Presidential candidate Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., and Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus, D-Mont., have advocated taxing health care benefits as one way to pay for an expensive health care overhaul. Up to now, these benefits have been tax-free.

The Internal Revenue Service plans to discontinue live programming of its Tax Talk Today webcasts on May 12, leaving accountants worried about their continuing professional education credits.

A chartered accountant from the U.K. who served as a former board member and vice chairman at global audit firm BDO Seidman has pleaded guilty to conspiracy with tax shelter promoters while claiming roughly $1 billion in fraudulent losses.

The Public Company Accounting Oversight Board has raised the aggregate 2009 fee it assesses to public companies and other issuers to $157.4 million from $151.8 million.

The Internal Revenue Service says that small businesses with deductions exceeding their income in 2008 can use a new net operating loss tax provision to get a refund of taxes paid in prior years. The IRS says it will work to issue refunds within 45 days or less “to the degree possible.”

Lawmakers continue to apply pressure to the Securities and Exchange Commission to reinstate a Depression-era rule that prevents traders from short-selling stocks whose share prices are falling.

The Financial Accounting Standards Board has issued a pair of proposed fair value staff positions written to provide additional guidance regarding measurements and impairments of securities, after coming under pressure at a congressional hearing to ease mark-to-market accounting standards.