Tax practice

A new poll shows that most Americans don't want state or federal tax agencies to prepare their taxes.

Senate Democrats have proposed legislation that would roll back $17 billion in tax breaks for oil and gas companies and impose a 25 percent windfall profits tax on the companies.

The Internal Revenue Service's Electronic Crimes Program needs to have more controls in place, says a new report.

The New York State Society of CPAs plans to hold its 29th Annual New York CPA Business & Technology Show & Conference on May 14 and 15 at the New York Hilton Hotel, featuring Tracy Byrnes of Fox Business News and IRS Special Agent Mike Minto as speakers.

The Tax Court issued an unusually stern rebuke to the Internal Revenue Service in a case it decided last week involving a huge group of tax shelter defendants.

A memo from the Internal Revenue Service's Large and Mid-Sized Business Division introduces new LMSB Procedures for tax return preparer penalty cases.

With the current estate tax regime set to expire in 2010, it’s time to consider what comes next, say the nation’s tax experts.With that sunset date fast approaching, the Tax Division of the American Institute of CPAs has taken its comprehensive reform proposal and boiled it down to a top-seven priority list of suggested reforms that it urged Congress to pass prior to the expiration date.

IRS HAS $1.2B IN UNCLAIMED TAX REFUNDS FOR 2004Washington, D.C. — The Internal Revenue Service said that it had approximately $1.2 billion in unclaimed refunds waiting for 1.3 million people who did not file federal income tax returns for 2004, but they needed to file by April 15, 2008, to claim the money.

The Treasury Department said it has sent out 7.708 million economic stimulus payments, or tax rebates, in the first week, totaling $7.091 billion.

Amazon.com has sued New York State over a new law that requires Internet businesses that receive referrals from other Web sites in the state to begin taxing purchases by New York customers.

2008 was to be the year that companies and their tax advisors worked to get their nonqualified deferred-compensation plans in order to comply with the new requirements under Code Section 409A and the regulations thereunder. Recent positions from the Internal Revenue Service are, however, expanding the focus of compensation concerns for 2008 beyond deferred compensation to include deductions for current performance-based compensation.BACKGROUND

The Internal Revenue Service is making progress on devising a strategy to narrow the tax gap, but significant challenges remain, according to a new report by the Treasury Department's inspector general.

The House Ways and Means Subcommittee on Select Revenue Measures held a hearing to discuss tax incentives for post-secondary education.

The Securities and Exchange Commission has filed enforcement actions against global advertising network McCann-Erickson Worldwide, its parent company Interpublic Group of Companies, and two of its former executives, charging them with accounting fraud.

The Taxpayer Advocate Service needs to do a better job of processing requests from taxpayers for relief from Internal Revenue Service enforcement actions, said a new report from the Treasury Department's watchdog group.

The Internal Revenue Service said that economic stimulus payments directly deposited to individual retirement accounts and other tax-favored accounts may be withdrawn tax-free and penalty-free.

IRS Narrows Tax Gap

The government won its second victory in the past month in a lease-in, lease-out tax shelter case, after the Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit agreed with a federal district court that BB&T Corp. is barred from obtaining a tax refund of approximately $4.5 million.

The Internal Revenue Service stepped up its compliance activities last year and saw its revenues jump, according to a new report.

Accounting firm Plante & Moran said it was seeing optimism among the businesses it surveyed in the Midwest despite general worries about the economy.