Tax practice

New guidance from the Internal Revenue Service stresses the need for employers to track the amount of expense reimbursement allowances paid to employees on a per diem basis.

A partnership between Wolters Kluwer business CCH and consulting firm National Tax Credit Group LLC will allow the companies to offer online delivery of federal and state location-based incentive information.

Democratic leaders are already making promises that the future of the alternative minimum tax will be the focus of the debate over next year's budget, according to published reports.

The Government Accountability Office has given good marks to the Internal Revenue Service’s 2005 and 2006 financial statements, but said that the agency did have to overcome “serious internal control and financial management systems deficiencies.”

The Internal Revenue Service announced increases in user fees for installment agreements.The increases -- the first since the fees were implemented in 1995 -- result from increases in labor and other costs of processing the various applications.

Internal Revenue Service Commissioner Mark Everson announced the of two new deputy commissioners, in personnel moves effective Dec. 1.Kevin Brown, currently the commissioner of the IRS Small Business and Self-Employed Division, will become deputy commissioner for Services and Enforcement, responsible for overseeing the agency’s four operating divisions, Criminal Investigation and the Office of Professional Responsibility.

My fifth grade teacher was, in, simplistic terms, an angry dolt who never should have been allowed in front of a classroom of impressionable young minds.

Home mortgage loan giant Fannie Mae announced that it expects the tab on a review of its accounting, as well as the preparation of up-to-date financial statements for the first time since the end of 2004, to run upwards of $1 billion this year.

Personal exemptions and standard deductions will rise, tax brackets will widen and income limits for individual retirement accounts will increase in 2007, due to inflation adjustments announced by the Internal Revenue Service.

The Tax Court reaffirmed that proceeds from the sale of a right to future annual lottery payments constitutes ordinary income, not capital gain, after reviewing two test cases involving winners of the Florida State Lottery.

Merck & Co. disclosed four separate tax disputes that have combined potential liabilities for the drug maker of more than $5.5 billion.

The Government Accountability Office offered some recommendations aimed at upping efficiency, but said that the Internal Revenue Service Office of Appeals has been doing a good job handling its process for collection due appeals.Under the IRS Restructuring and Reform Act of 1998, taxpayers facing liens or levies can request a collection due process appeal hearing with the IRS office. By 2005, those cases represented about one-quarter of the office’s workload.

Not that things were going super smoothly before, but the path to turning any of President Bush’s second-term agenda into meaningful change just got a lot harder following yesterday’s election.

H&R Block announced a number of refund lending enhancements in a recent news release. A side-by-side comparison chart will outline all filing options, fees, and the time that it takes to receive a refund.H&R Block will also provide a report that states, among other things, that selecting a refund anticipation loan product means that taxpayers get less of their refunds. This announcement follows H&R Block's September announcement that it is reducing the cost of refund.

The Internal Revenue Service announced the selection of five new members for the Electronic Tax Administration Advisory Committee.

TOP HALF OF TAXPAYERS PAY HIGHEST TAX SHARE IN DECADES: The share of income taxes paid by the top half of taxpayers reached its highest level in decades, according to a report from the Joint Economic Committee.According to figures supplied by the Internal Revenue Service, the top half of taxpayers ranked by income paid 96.70 percent of the individual income taxes paid in 2004, compared to 86.05 percent in 1949, 89.35 percent in 1959, and 90.27 percent in 1969. The top 1 percent of tax filers paid 36.89 percent of 2004 income taxes, while the top 10 percent accounted for more than two thirds (68.19 percent) of those taxes. At least part of the increase in taxes paid by the higher percentile may be related to higher capital gains following the reduction of the capital gains tax rate in 2003.

New online payment options, changes to the Offer in Compromise program, and the impact of the National Research Program are, among others, key issues for the tax practitioner community.

The provisions of the Pension Protection Act of 2006, enacted on Aug. 17, 2006, include a package of changes related to tax-exempt entities and charitable contributions. Many of the provisions were designed to tighten perceived abuses involving tax-exempt entities and deductions for charitable contributions. A few of the new provisions, however, liberalize the charitable giving rules.

The Internal Revenue Service is seeking applications for vacancies on the Advisory Committee on Tax Exempt and Government Entities.

The Tax Policy Center has released a series of data tables taking a look at the effect of the major tax changes enacted since 2001.