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One of the more intriguing ideas in the energy bill that the House passed over the weekend was that of doing a "carbon audit" of the U.S. Tax Code. Exactly how Congress proposes to conduct such an audit is another matter.
August 7 -
The remaining five defendants in the KPMG tax shelter case are seeking a postponement in the trial until after October.
August 6 -
Bestselling financial writer Wade Cook was slapped with an 88-month jail term for defrauding the Internal Revenue Service.
August 6 -
House lawmakers passed a $16 billion energy tax bill that does away with tax breaks for oil and gas companies and shifts the incentives to alternative energy, despite the threat of a veto from President Bush.
August 6 -
The Internal Revenue Service said that owners of thousands of Ford, Toyota and Lexus hybrid vehicles can continue to claim the Alternative Motor Vehicle Credit, but the phase-out period for claiming the credit has already begun for Toyota and Lexus owners because of strong sales of the company's hybrids.
August 6 -
Sixty percent of Internal Revenue Service employees were duped into giving control of their passwords to unauthorized callers, according to an inspection report that found lingering problems with computer security years after they were supposed to have been corrected.
August 5 -
The Internal Revenue Service has released drafts of the updated income tax forms for corporations and partnerships, and is asking for comments before it finalizes the changes for tax year 2008 and beyond.
August 5 -
The Collection Financial Standards, the measures used by the Internal Revenue Service in negotiating installment agreements and offers in compromise, have been stuck in a time warp, according to observers."They haven't been updated since January 2006," observed New York-based attorney and CPA Michael Breslin, managing partner of FullServe Group LLC. "It has affected our ability to negotiate and it mandates higher amounts that are not fair. These numbers are based on 2005 figures and they were issued in early 2006."
August 5 -
Conceding that a full-blown repeal of the alternative minimum tax may now be near-impossible, representatives of the nation's enrolled agents urged Congress to place new restrictions on the type of tax preparers authorized to prepare AMT returns."Repealing the full AMT would be a huge step in the simplification of the Tax Code, but one that may no longer be in the cards," EA Frank Degen told the Senate Finance Committee on behalf of the National Association of Enrolled Agents. "Practically, we admit that full repeal of the AMT may be a bridge too far for Congress to cross."
August 5 -
PRIVATE COLLECTION PROGRAM SURVIVES HOUSE VOTEBy a margin of 240-179, House lawmakers approved funding for the Internal Revenue
August 5 -
It is always difficult to get the Supreme Court to review a case, but this seems especially true for tax cases. The recent court term just ended proved to be no exception. Of several cases practitioners were hoping that the court would accept, only one received a grant of certiorari in the closing days of the term.It is the decisions for which the court grants certiorari where the fight, and the hope, goes on. It is, however, in the cases with respect to which certiorari is denied where taxpayers must finally face the facts or explore other remedies.
August 5 -
Fewer taxpayers took advantage of the Internal Revenue Service's free electronic tax return filing service in 2007 than in previous years, according to a new audit report released by the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration.Moreover, the audit identified multiple calculation errors made by the commercial software of Free File Alliance firms.
August 5 -
The Internal Revenue Service outlined the steps it plans to take to close the approximately $290 billion tax gap by encouraging more people and businesses to voluntarily pay what they owe the government, but it still faces an uphill battle.
August 2 -
The American Institute of CPAs scored a victory this week in convincing House lawmakers to remove a provision in the Farm Bill Extension Act of 2007 that it feared could jeopardize the business of CPAs in farming communities.
August 2 -
Representatives of private equity firms, hedge funds and other types of investment firms fought back against proposals to raise taxes on their incomes, telling the Senate Finance Committee that critics have misconceptions about their industry.
August 1 -
The National Society of Accountants is protesting an obscure new tax-reporting standard that it complains flew "under the radar" when it was stealthily inserted into an unrelated piece of Congressional legislation.
August 1 -
Two CPA firms on California's central coast have announced a merger: Bianchi, Lorincz, Huey, Hudson & Co. and Kasavan & Pope.
August 1 -
Grant Thornton CEO Edward E. Nusbaum has worked with the firm for 28 years, but since he took over the helm, the Chicago-based firm has more than doubled its revenue in the last four years, reaching $940 million in 2006.
August 1 -
The Internal Revenue Service has established new electronic filing rules that it hopes will help quickly identify fraud schemes such as phishing.
July 31 -
You might be surprised what qualifies as an unforeseen circumstance for the partial exclusion of gain on the sale of a personal residence. Under this special rule, taxpayers are allowed to exclude gain up to a reduced maximum exclusion amount under Section 121(c) if the sale is due to a change in place of employment, health, or unforeseen circumstances even though it was used for less than two of the five preceding years as the personal residence.
July 30