Tax research

Labeling it the “Mother of all Tax Reforms,” Rep. Charles Rangel, D-N.Y., chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, has introduced a bill aimed at repealing the alternative minimum tax and cutting the top corporate tax rate while raising taxes in other areas, including on the salaries of hedge fund and private equity fund managers.The $1 trillion plan would reduce the top corporate rate from its current 35 percent to 30.5 percent.

CPA firm Braver said it is merging with Edward Giardina P.C., as Giardina joins Braver as a partner at the firm.

Immigration attorney Grisel Ybarra got back a canceled check from the Internal Revenue Service for the two cents the IRS had billed her as a late fee.

The head of the United Kingdom's tax authority, Her Majesty's Revenue and Customs, resigned after it was revealed that two discs with information on 25 million people from 7.25 million families was missing.

President Bush plans to nominate Douglas Shulman as Internal Revenue Service commissioner.

Unfortunately, since December 31 coincides with the tax-reporting period for 99 percent of U.S. individual taxpayers, the average taxpayer will only begin thinking about their 2007 taxes during the first quarter of 2008. Unfortunately, this delay is generally very costly, since almost every individual taxpayer reports taxable income on a cash basis, as opposed to an accrual basis.

President Bush is nominating Nathan J. Hochman, of California, to be Assistant Attorney General (Tax Division) at the Department of Justice.

David Greenberg, a former tax partner with KPMG, faced a superseding indictment that added six more charges of tax evasion to the charges he was already facing as part of the government's case against KPMG's marketing of questionable tax shelters for clients.

H&R Block Chairman and CEO Mark Ernst has stepped down two weeks after the company CFO resigned, as the company faces losses from its subprime mortgage operations.

New York State tax officials are crying foul over New York Yankees captain Derek Jeter's claim of Florida residence and are demanding that he pay back taxes that could amount to millions.

Tax software vendors Intuit and H&R Block were hit with a potential multi-billion-dollar class-action lawsuit alleging that they charge excessive fees for electronic filing.

CCH debuted a Web-based tool designed to find local incentives that can reduce income, property, and sales and use taxes, as well as identify enterprise zones and non-tax financial incentives.

Leaders of the Senate Finance Committee have introduced a bill to prohibit the Patent and Trademark Office from granting any further patents for tax strategies and tax-planning inventions.

The Internal Revenue Service wants to track down 115,478 taxpayers who are owed approximately $110 million after their refund checks were returned as undeliverable.

More than 30,000 Medicaid providers had a total of over $1 billion in unpaid federal taxes last fiscal year, according to a report released by the Government Accountability Office.

CCH has named Dee Hairgrove as vice president of ProSystem fx Tax development.

The U.S. Treasury Dept. has released a study on the income mobility of U.S. taxpayers between 1996 and 2005, and found evidence of upward mobility even as the gap between incomes at the upper and lower ends of the scale has grown.

Two firms in South Florida said they were merging, with Berenfeld, Spritzer, Shechter & Sheer LLP, expanding by combining with Lefcourt, Billig, Tiktin & Yesner.

Southern accounting firm Carr, Riggs & Ingram has acquired Bumpus Hall, allowing the firm to expand into the Nashville area.

The House has voted to approve a $78 billion bill that would provide a temporary fix to prevent the alternative minimum tax from spreading to about 23 million more taxpayers this coming tax season.