Tax regulations

The Treasury Department and the Internal Revenue Service proposed tax regulations Wednesday to bring the rules in line with recent Supreme Court decisions.

Starbucks Corp. and a Fiat Chrysler Automobiles NV unit must each pay as much as 30 million euros ($34 million) in back taxes after the European Union said they were handed illegal fiscal deals by the Netherlands and Luxembourg.

Earlier this week, Accounting Today hosted a Web seminar on Understanding Affordable Care Act Reporting.

Starbucks Corp. and a Fiat Chrysler Automobiles NV unit are set to be first in the firing line as European Union regulators issue a series of rulings over tax breaks for global companies, including Apple Inc.

With states and localities increasingly looking to collect taxes from people and businesses that buy goods and services online, many taxpayers may not be aware that they could be overpaying sales and use taxes.

The Financial Accounting Standards Board’s 2007 standard on accounting for uncertainty in income taxes, FASB Interpretation No. 48, or FIN 48, has helped discourage companies from using tax reserves to manage their quarterly earnings reports, according to a new study.

While life insurance can be an income tax-free asset when structured appropriately, the income tax laws may result in the transfer of life insurance policies that are income taxable to both the transferor and the transferee.

Senior tax executives are preparing for changes in the tax landscape as a result of the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development’s base erosion and profit shifting project.

British Petroleum will be able to write off $15.3 billion of the $20.8 billion settlement of the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, according to an advocacy group.

The OECD unveiled its blueprint Monday for cracking down on international tax avoidance, an opening salvo in what promises to be a prolonged battle.

Even the easiest client engagement can turn difficult when family gets involved.

The U.S. government has signed “competent authority arrangements” with the United Kingdom and Australia to advance their intergovernmental agreements to combat tax evasion under the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act, or FATCA.

Senator Elizabeth Warren urged the Treasury Department to finalize its rule limiting the tax benefits enjoyed by private equity managers.

As the Baby Boomer generation ages and faces the prospect of needing to hire caregivers, accountants are increasingly being called upon to help families sort out the tax issues associated with hired domestic help.

The Internal Revenue Service has issued a notice and revenue procedure indicating it is studying issues related to the spinoff of real estate assets for tax reasons.

Proposed regulations released by the Treasury Department in January provide guidance on the definition of internal use software for the R&D tax credit.

The IRS relieved small business taxpayers earlier this year from having to file mandatory Form 3115’s to comply with the newly issued tangible property regulations. Accepting this relief under Rev. Proc. 2015-20 is done merely by filing a federal tax return, leaving many accountants and tax professionals unaware of the negative consequences of doing nothing.

Americans for Tax Fairness, a coalition of 453 national and state organizations advocating for tax reform, has challenged the B Corporation status of Brooklyn-based Etsy, Inc., following the online craft seller’s restructuring of a subsidiary in Ireland, a tax haven, to dodge U.S. taxes.

The Internal Revenue Service has proposed regulations changing the amount of the penalties for failing to include information required to be disclosed about reportable transactions.

The chairmen of Congress’s two main tax committees, House Ways and Means Committee chairman Paul Ryan, R-Wis., and Senate Finance Committee chairman Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, have written to Treasury Secretary Jacob Lew saying he should hold off on developing country-by-country reporting regulations for taxation of multinational corporations.