Tax research

Members of Congress have been calling for raising taxes on the profits of private equity firms and hedge funds, along with taxing the incomes of their top managers at the same rate as managers of corporations.

United States v. Stein, a U.S. District Court for the Southern District Court opinion (July 17, 2007) by District Judge Lewis Kaplan, is fascinating reading, and may have significant implications for a number of firms.

A former tax return preparer has been sentenced to 151 months in prison for participating in a tax fraud scheme to hide income and assets in bogus trusts, according to the U.S. Justice Department.

TIGTA Questions IRS's Questionable Refund ProgramWASHINGTON, D.C. - A new Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration audit has found that changes in the Internal Revenue Service's Questionable Refund Program, along with a significant technological failure, dramatically decreased the effectiveness of the program for the 2006 filing season.

U.S. Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson plans to convene a conference in the coming week that could lead to an overhaul of the corporate tax system and a cut in corporate taxes.

Have you heard the joke about the sales tax audit? No one has.There is nothing funny about a sales tax audit.

Summertime brings with it the "high season" for clients who are seriously considering purchasing vacation homes, or switching from one vacation home to another.The majority are looking to take advantage of certain tax breaks to help them carry the property. For others, tax savings are an added bonus to validate their decision. In either case, tax advisors often get a hurried call to explain the options.

IRS National Taxpayer Advocate Nina E. Olson delivered a report to Congress on her main priorities for the coming fiscal year, and at the top of the list is improving taxpayer services.

The Justice Department has filed a suit asking the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida to permanently bar a pair of South Florida tax preparers who allegedly have been fabricating deductions and credits.

Judge Lewis A. Kaplan, who dismissed charges against 13 of the defendants in the KPMG tax shelter case earlier this week, has issued a temporary stay on his own decision.

The Public Company Accounting Oversight Board said it plans to hold a meeting to consider a new ethics and independence rule concerning communication with audit committees.

The House Ways and Means Committee voted along mainly party lines to repeal the ability of the Internal Revenue Service to enter into private debt collection contracts, with a vote of 23 to 18 on the Democratic-backed bill.Under current law, the IRS can use private debt collection companies to find and contact taxpayers who owe outstanding tax liabilities and arrange payment. The companies can keep up to 25 percent of the amount collected, and the IRS can retain another 25 percent for additional enforcement activities. The Tax Collection Responsibility Act of 2007 would repeal that authority, which critics fear could lead to abusive tax collection practices.

Former construction worker and Coast Guard employee Rhiannon O’Donnabhain is suing the Internal Revenue Service after she was disallowed from deducting $25,000 in medical expenses for her sex change operation.The IRS claims the operation was cosmetic surgery and not a medical necessity. In another case in 2005, the IRS Chief Counsel made a similar determination. However, the United States Tax Court has not ruled on any similar cases, and its decision could set a precedent.

The United States Tax Court has decided that wages earned in Antarctica are still subject to taxation.

A tax manager who left her firm in Hawaii and moved to South Carolina was the subject of a very interesting article in the July 2007 Boomer Bulletin from Boomer Consulting Inc. What was so interesting was that not much changed for the Hawaiian firm, as she continues to work for it remotely from South Carolina.

A federal judge has dropped the charges against 13 defendants in the KPMG tax shelter case.Judge Lewis A. Kaplan of the U.S. District Court in Manhattan blamed prosecutors for forcing the Big Four accounting firm to stop paying the legal fees of the 13 defendants and said their constitutional rights had been violated.

The Internal Revenue Service said it plans to simplify the signature process for electronically filed individual tax returns by allowing tax practitioners to avoid the need to send a paper signature document in support of their clients' e-filed returns.

The American Institute of CPAs wants Congress to modify a little-noticed provision in the recently passed Iraq war-funding bill that the institute fears may put tax preparers at odds with their clients.

The Internal Revenue Service said it has begun mailing educational letters this month to more than 650,000 small tax-exempt organizations to let them know they need to start submitting a new annual electronic notice known as an e-Postcard.Form 990-N, the electronic notice they have to send, is intended for tax-exempt organizations with gross receipts of $25,000 or less. Until the passage of the Pension Protection Act of 2006, charities of that size weren't required to submit either the Form 990 or 990-EZ.

CCH has integrated its CertiTax software and Sales Tax Load Utilities with Microsoft Dynamics GP 10.0.The company's CertiTax Plug-in for Dynamics GP 10.0 provides an interface from CertiTax, CCH's hosted sales tax calculation system, to the Dynamics GP 10.0 sales order process module.