Tax practice

At this time of year, people are organizing their records in preparation for filing their tax returns. This is often a challenging task, and that may be particularly true for those who are serving in the armed forces.

The Internal Revenue Service said it would add distressed-asset trust transactions to its list of tax avoidance transactions, signaling that such transactions need to be disclosed and may be subject to penalties.

The House has again passed an energy tax bill that would increase taxes on major oil and gas producers by $18 billion while providing incentives for renewable energy.

The Internal Revenue Service said it is beginning enforcement actions against more than 100 U.S. taxpayers who have been sheltering their funds from taxes by depositing them in secret bank accounts in the tax haven of Liechtenstein.

The Internal Revenue Service has introduced an electronic filing system that allows small tax-exempt organizations to file Form 990-N "e-Postcards" to report their annual income.

House Democrats plan to reintroduce a bill this week that would shift tax breaks from oil and gas to renewable energy sources.

Germany has committed to sharing tax evasion information as a widening tax scandal involving its citizens and the tax haven of Liechtenstein spreads to other parts of Europe.

A case currently before the U.S. Supreme Court could have huge implications for state tax law when it's decided in late spring.

IRS BOOSTS TAX AUDITS

IRS FILES OVERWHELM STORAGE SPACE

The Internal Revenue Service has given some farmers, fishermen and other agricultural industry taxpayers until March 10 to electronically file the newly revised Form 4136, "Credit for Federal Tax Paid on Fuels."

In November, we devoted a column to the issues surrounding the new return preparer penalty standards under Internal Revenue Code Sec. 6694 enacted as part of the Small Business and Work Opportunity Act of 2007. Those changes focused on the expansion of coverage of Code Section 6694 to tax returns beyond income tax returns; an increase in the penalties imposed, including penalties based on 50 percent of fees derived from return preparation; and an increase in the disclosure standard required to avoid penalties to more likely than not (greater than 50 percent) from a realistic possibility of prevailing on the merits (greater than one third).

The Congressional Budget Office has issued a report on the deductibility of state and local income taxes, looking at the benefits and drawbacks of the system.

The economic stimulus package that President Bush signed into law last week is drawing attention mostly to its tax rebates for individuals, but the bill also contains several provisions that should benefit small and midsized companies.

The Internal Revenue Service wants senior citizens, disabled veterans and retired railroad workers to make sure to file a tax return in order to receive a rebate, even if they don't normally do so.

As thousands of CPA firms across the country embark on that annual ritual known as filing season, more and more practices are looking toward document management and workflow solutions to ease the ensuing crush of paper.

The Internal Revenue Service has issued Revenue Procedure 2008-16, which provides a safe harbor under which the IRS will not challenge whether a property that is rented to others but also occasionally used by the owners for personal purposes qualifies as property that may be exchanged in a like-kind exchange under Section 1031 of the Tax Code.

The Georgia Senate has approved a bill that will do away with the state portion of the property tax.

As thousands of CPA firms across the country embark on that annual ritual known as filing season, more and more practices are looking toward document management and workflow solutions to ease the ensuing crush of paper.

The Internal Revenue Service said it has begun successfully processing the five tax forms affected by the long-delayed patch for the alternative minimum tax.