Tax practice

The $410 billion spending bill approved Tuesday evening by the Senate to help fund the federal government for the rest of the year includes funding for some nine federal agencies, including the Internal Revenue Service.

A long-standing decision against building supplies retailer Menard, in which $20 million in compensation to its founder and CEO was ruled a dividend and therefore non-deductible, has been reversed by the Seventh Circuit Court.

The Internal Revenue Service has begun offering self-assistance options at some of its offices that give taxpayers limited access to computers and phones so they can reach the IRS’s Web site and toll-free phone lines without waiting in a long line, but those efforts can still be frustrating.

Financial Accounting Standards Board Chairman Robert Herz was pressed to make changes in mark-to-market accounting standards in as soon as three weeks during a contentious congressional hearing.

The adoption of International Financial Reporting Standards in the U.S. looks to be increasingly in doubt.

An Ohio CPA urges the National Taxpayer Advocate to lobby elected officials to do their own taxes.

There is an additional standard deduction for those who don’t qualify to itemize their tax deductions, but who do pay state or local real estate taxes, according to the Internal Revenue Service. This deduction is available for the 2008 and 2009 tax years.

In the wake of its decision not to renew contracts with two private debt collection agencies, the Internal Revenue Service now appears set to review other types of outside contracts.

The Internal Revenue Service has decided not to renew its contracts with two private debt collection agencies.

The Internal Revenue Service said that taxpayers are filing their taxes earlier and receiving larger refunds so far this year, citing early filing season statistics.

Two members of the House Financial Services Committee have introduced a bill that would establish a new Federal Accounting Oversight Board and probably loosen mark-to-market accounting standards.

Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner told lawmakers that he was open to finding other ways to close the budget deficit besides limiting tax deductions for charitable contributions and mortgage interest for high-income taxpayers.

A UBS executive told a congressional committee probing tax shelter abuses that approximately 47,000 U.S. customers had accounts with the Swiss bank, but declined to release the names of the vast majority of them.

If your mortgage debt is partly or entirely forgiven during tax years 2007 – 2012, you may be able to claim special tax relief and exclude the debt forgiveness income, said the IRS.

Sabrix has debuted Taxcast, an online, interactive tool to help businesses stay on top of the latest sales and use tax obligations from 13,253 U.S. taxing jurisdictions.

The Obama administration’s stimulus bill and budget proposal are going to require the outlay of not only trillions of dollars, but the hiring of a lot more accountants to keep track of all that money.

Taxpayers will file 240 million federal tax returns and supplemental documents during calendar year 2009, according to projections from the IRS Office of Research, but that’s down 4.3 percent from estimated return filings of 250.8 million for 2008.

The Internal Revenue Service said it has approximately $1.3 billion in unclaimed refunds waiting for people who did not file a federal income tax return for 2005.

Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner explained the Obama administration’s budget and tax plans, and his handling of the financial industry bailout, to wary lawmakers in a congressional hearing.

The Internal Revenue Service could be doing more to encourage businesses to report miscellaneous income payments on 1099-MISC forms, according to a new report.