Tax practice

* FREE FILE AND IRS EXTEND PARTNERSHIP: The Internal Revenue Service and the Free File Alliance have extended their partnership, a pact that provides free tax services and electronic filing to an eligible pool of 93 million taxpayers, and agreed to provide important new consumer protections.Free File debuted during the 2003 filing season as a strategy of providing free services to moderate- and low-income taxpayers. The alliance is a consortium of tax software vendors that set their own criteria for taxpayer eligibility for free use of their software. The agreement calls for services to be provided to 70 percent of the nation's taxpayers. The extended agreement includes the following consumer protections:

A federal judge ordered the Internal Revenue Service to pay Warren Buffett's investment company, Berkshire Hathaway Inc., more than $23 million in taxes and interest for disallowing certain deductions dating back to 1989.The IRS disallowed the original deductions after tracing $750 million in borrowed money that Berkshire used to purchase stock in several companies, including Coca-Cola Co., Time-Warner and Wells Fargo & Co. The IRS based its denial on a tax code passed by Congress that reduced deductions if borrowed money is directly attributable to the investment that pays a dividend.

Tax practice for CPAs is changing. Recent modifications to Circular 230, the U.S. Treasury Department regulations that govern practice before the Internal Revenue Service, have established several changes that leave CPAs with a new standard for the practice of taxation.The rationale for the revised regulations is part of an IRS effort to promote ethical tax practices and curb abusive tax avoidance programs promoted by some tax professionals. Some CPA and law firms were coming up with tax-motivated transactions for clients and then packaging those transactions to sell to other companies.

Advanced degrees are being obtained by a higher percentage of the middle- and upper-class population than ever before. Many of these students hold full-time jobs. The recent development of online universities has only served to fuel this trend. The ability of working students to take a business expense deduction for tuition expenses likewise has grown in importance.With MBAs being one of the hot degrees to have as of late, because of its apparent ticket to success in many different business settings, it's a small wonder that a recent Tax Court decision has attracted more than its share of attention. That case (Allemeier Jr., T.C. Memo. 2005-207) appears to have opened up the possibility that the expense for obtaining a larger number of MBA degrees can be written off as a trade or business expense.

A member of the President's Advisory Panel on Federal Tax Reform has been complaining loudly about the requirement that the panel always meet in public to discuss its plan, according to reports.

The recently passed Treasury appropriations bill for next year sets a budget of $10.7 billion for the Internal Revenue Service, with most of the agency's $434 million increase tabbed for enforcement efforts.

The House and Senate passed the Treasury appropriations bill for next year, allocating a budget of $10.7 billion for the Internal Revenue Service, a $434 million increase from 2005 that will mostly be directed to enforcement efforts.

As the Senate approved a measure with $60 billion in tax cuts, the House will consider its own measure containing $56.6 billion in cuts. Both plans are spread over the next five years.

Although President Bush's tax reform advisory group recommended against shifting the U.S. to a European-style value added tax or a national sales tax system, congressional advocates of consumption taxes haven't given up the fight.

The Senate will debate a tax bill that would cut taxes by about $61 billion over the next five years, and would include a $5 billion tax next year for the nation's biggest oil companies.

The Internal Revenue Service has launched its revamped Web site at www.irs.gov.

A report from the Government Accountability Office suggested the Internal Revenue Service and the United States Citizenship and Immigrations Services -- the agency responsible for immigration administration -- form a partnership to share information and increase tax compliance.

In early November, Rector J. Edwin Bacon told parishioners at the All Saints Episcopal Church in Pasadena, Calif., that the Internal Revenue Service was examining the church for a possible violation of its nonprofit status.

While the Internal Revenue Service has made "great strides" in addressing financial management challenges and internal control deficiencies, a report from the Government Accountability Office stated that the service still faces substantial hurdles in that area.

The Internal Revenue Service has issued Notice 2005-88, which explains steps that large corporations and tax-exempt organizations can take to seek waivers from electronic filing requirements.

The heads of the nation's five major oil companies testified about their $30 billion in third-quarter profits before a joint session of the Senate's Energy and Natural Resources Committee and Commerce Committee.

Taxpayers will be able to request an automatic, six-month filing extension for most common individual and business returns, according to new regulations released by the Treasury Department and the Internal Revenue Service.

Senate Finance Committee Chairman Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, announced a plan to cut taxes by nearly $70 billion by 2010.

* REFORM PANEL RULES OUT NATIONAL SALES TAX: The President's Advisory Panel on Federal Tax Reform ruled out a proposed national retail sales tax, and said that it would instead suggest changes to the current Internal Revenue Code framework, such as slashing benefits for mortgages and health care. The nine-member panel said that curbing benefits would help achieve the panel's original goal of simplifying the current tax code, while at the same time funding the cost of repealing the controversial alternative minimum tax.While agreeing that a national retail tax would boost revenue, the panel said that a hybrid tax would raise issues of "simplicity and fairness."

States have taken two different paths in response to falling revenue from corporate tax collections.On the one hand, some states have focused on lowering corporate taxes or at least changing them to make themselves more attractive for investment. At least five states have debated bills to reduce corporate tax rates in 2005, while dozens of others have introduced bills that shift corporate taxes away from the property and employees of corporations, and onto the customers of corporations.