Tax research

The administrators of a Utah college savings plan have settled with the Securities and Exchange Commission for issuing false and misleading information, though the fund's former director will be charged with misappropriating funds.

Federal prosecutors have notified as many as 20 former partners at Big Four firm KPMG LLP that they may face criminal charges for selling illegal tax shelters.

Tax information providers CCH and RIA both released comprehensive explanations and practical analyses of the tax provisions contained in the Energy Policy Act of 2005 and the Safe, Accountable, Flexible and Efficient Transportation Equity Act of 2005.

The Electronic Tax Administration Advisory Committee, the consortium that is charged with advising the Internal Revenue Service on its e-filing strategy, is exhorting the service to accelerate its previously announced plans to update its e-filing process.

Tax preparation giant H&R Block Inc. has said in a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission that it overstated net income for 2003 and 2004 by $91.1 million, due mostly to accounting errors.

The Internal Revenue Service will scrap its plans to close 68 Taxpayer Assistance Centers after Congress insisted the agency further study the potential impact of the closures.

Tax preparation giant H&R Block Inc. will acquire the Tax & Business Services division of American Express, creating a combined firm with more than 5,000 employees and generating more than $1 billion in annual revenue.

A judge has ordered the Internal Revenue Service to pay more than $250,000 after determining an IRS agent disclosed confidential information during a criminal investigation.

Although the White House said it reviewed tax returns for Supreme Court nominee John G. Roberts Jr., it has stopped short of allowing investigators from the Senate Judiciary Committee to review the returns as part of the confirmation process.

Lawmakers reached an agreement, putting together $14.5 billion in energy tax breaks as part of a major energy bill years in the making. Both the House and Senate are expected to approve the bill this week.

The Internal Revenue Service has begun a study to assess the reporting compliance of S corporations. The study, carried out under the National Research Program, will examine 5,000 randomly selected S corporation returns from tax years 2003 and 2004. Created in 2000, the NRP is a comprehensive effort by the IRS to measure payment, filing and reporting compliance for different types of taxes and various sets of taxpayers.

Much has changed at J.H. Cohn from its start 85 years ago in Newark, N.J., to its current status as one of the largest independent accounting firms in the country with offices in New York, New Jersey, California and the Cayman Islands.

Amidst the controversy surrounding the Internal Revenue Service's recommendation to shutter nearly 70 Taxpayer Assistance Centers, the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration said it would monitor the services' proposal and urged it to organize TAC data.

While the Internal Revenue Service is working overtime to send tax cheats to prison, officials at the tax service are discovering that a considerable portion of them are already behind bars.During hearings before the House Ways and Means Oversight Subcommittee, IRS officials confirmed that illegal tax return filing activity by prisoners in state and federal penal institutions has become a rapidly growing problem for the service in the past few years.

* TAX REFORM PANEL GETS TWO-MONTH REPRIEVE: The President's Advisory Panel on Tax Reform will get an additional two months to complete its work. The White House amended the executive order creating the panel to give the group until Sept. 30, 2005, to complete its work. The original deadline was July 31, 2005.The panel will present Treasury Secretary John Snow with a report that includes revenue-neutral policy options for reforming the Internal Revenue Code. Those options are supposed to simplify federal tax laws to reduce the costs and the administrative burden of compliance, and to include at least one option that uses the federal income tax as the base for its recommended reforms.

Middle-class taxpayers who sell their first investment property are shocked when they find that a major portion of their gain on the sale is due on the alternative minimum tax.That's because most of them don't bother consulting with their accountant ahead of time, according to Stephen Wayner, vice president of Miami-based Bayview Financial Services.

In a victory for accounting firm BDO Seidman, a federal appeals court judge reversed a district court decision and ruled in late June that a group of investors can't sue BDO Seidman over the sale of an illegal tax shelter, and instead must arbitrate their claim.

The American Jobs Creation Act of 2004 provides that the amount of a deduction for charitable donations after 2004 of qualified vehicles where the claimed value is more than $500 depends on the charity's use of the donated vehicle.Qualified vehicles include motor vehicles, boats and planes that aren't inventory or held for sale in the ordinary course of business. The Internal Revenue Service has issued Notice 2005-44 to provide detailed guidance on the charitable contribution rules that apply to qualified vehicles that are donated after 2004.

The Public Company Accounting Oversight Board has scheduled a meeting for Tuesday and will vote on finalizing two rules proposed in December and March. One rule deals with auditor independence and tax shelters, while the second concerns weak internal controls.

Taxpayers and tax professionals who filed for an extension can use e-file to file their 2004 tax returns, according to the Internal Revenue Service.