Tax practice

Amidst all the pronouncements from the Internal Revenue Service touting the number of taxpayers flocking to electronic filing in one form or another, the Government Accountability Office has issued a report warning that the threat of a security breach remains high.

The Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration, J. Russell George, said bad data is to blame for the Internal Revenue Services' never-realized plan to close 68 Taxpayer Assistance Centers across the country.

The Internal Revenue Service is inviting individuals to help improve the nation's tax agency by applying to be members of the Taxpayer Advocacy Panel. The panel provides a forum for citizens from each state to make suggestions regarding IRS decision-making.

A complaint has been lodged with the Government Accountability Office that could again stall the Internal Revenue Service's plan to subcontract cases to private debt collection firms.

The Internal Revenue Service is considering a proposal to loosen the privacy standards of federal income tax returns. The change could allow accountants and other tax return preparers to sell information from individual returns to marketers and data brokers, according to published reports.

Congress has begun to focus in on reforms for the nation's health care tax policy -- a move that could impact hundreds of billions of dollars a year in cherished tax breaks for individuals and employers.

The Internal Revenue Service has issued guidance describing 26 frivolous arguments that taxpayers should avoid when filing their returns.

IRS REQUESTS $10.6B BUDGET FOR 2007: The Internal Revenue Service requested a budget of $10.6 billion for the 2007 fiscal year, an increase of 1.4 percent from the current year's budget. Nearly $10.6 billion would come from direct appropriations through the Treasury Department. An additional $135 million would come from the IRS's new user fee revenue, for a total operating level of $10.7 billion.Among the IRS operations receiving more funding would be enforcement activities and taxpayer services. Enforcement has proposed funding at nearly $7 billion, a 2 percent increase from the 2006 enacted levels; taxpayer services has proposed funding at more than $3.5 billion, a 1.4 percent increase from 2006.

There's a new area of controversy at the Internal Revenue Service, and it surrounds the recently released 2005 annual report from the Taxpayer Advocate Service -the independent organization within the IRS designated as the liaison between the IRS and taxpayers with problems.While the Taxpayer Advocate is required to identify at least 20 serious problems in her annual report, particular attention has been given to one topic in this year's report: the IRS's Criminal Investigation Questionable Refund Program.

While the Roth 401(k) plan option was enacted back in 2001 and has been available since January 1 of this year, advice over whether to jump on the Roth 401(k) bandwagon remains hard to give.Detailed rules on contributions, operations and distributions for Roth 401(k) plans have been slow in coming. Proposed reliance regulations on contributions weren't released until this past December; reliance regs on distributions weren't out until January.

Oracle, a high-volume provider of business software, based here, has validated the integration between compliance software Taxware Enterprise Version 4.3 and Oracle's PeopleSoft Enterprise Version 8.9.Taxware's software, a sales and use tax and value-added tax calculation application, now integrates with Oracle's PeopleSoft Enterprise Financial Management, including payables, and Supply Chain Management components, including order management, billing and purchasing.

Internal Revenue Service Commissioner Mark Everson said that lawmakers should consider making corporate tax returns part of the public record in a speech at the National Press Club in Washington.

About 10 percent of General Service Administration contractors owed roughly $1.4 billion in unpaid taxes between the years 2004-05,according to an investigation conducted by the Government Accountability Office.

The Internal Revenue Service awarded contracts to a trio of firms to participate in the first phase of its private debt collection initiative.

Professional preparation of a non-itemized Form 1040 will cost a taxpayer about $110, while an itemized 1040 with Schedule A will run about $201, according to a survey from the National Society of Accountants.

Taxpayers doesn't seem to be returning to pencil and paper after the Internal Revenue Service discontinued its TeleFile service.

American taxpayer support for overall tax compliance has reached an all-time high, according to an annual survey commissioned by the IRS Oversight Board.

Business taxpayers and associations have until March 31 to seek resolution of problematic tax issues through the Internal Revenue Service's Industry Issue Resolution Program.

The Ohio Department of Taxation has collected approximately $63 million in delinquent taxes previously owed to the state, which is more than six times the initial goal set.

Even if the turnaround for written legal advice is quick, a court has ruled that the Internal Revenue Service must release all legal advice issued by its chief counsel attorneys.