Tax research

Legislators and the public should be aware that carry-over basis problems of estate tax repeal could be a nightmare, according to the American Association of Attorney-CPAs.

While the Internal Revenue Service has made progress in improving taxpayer service, tax law enforcement and Business Systems Modernization areas, serious ongoing issues have kept the latter two areas on the Government Accountability Office's high-risk list, the watchdog agency said.

Accounting software maker Intuit has put its Information Technology Solutions business, which sells Track-It! software, on the sale block.

Avalara, a Web-service based sales tax software provider, revealed their latest sales tax software - AvaTax On-Demand.

In response to requests from tax practitioners and professional organizations for clarification, the Internal Revenue Service and the Treasury Department issued revisions to the new Circular 230 standards -- rules related to written tax advice issued last December.

Tax and legal publisher BNA Inc. has appointed long-time executive Darren McKewen as group publisher of tax and accounting at Tax Management Inc.

Jackson Hewitt Tax Service said that its network of offices prepared 3.3 million tax returns for fiscal 2005, up 5.9 percent over last year.

The perception that Web-based tax research is a mature market hasn't slowed the furious pace at which publishers have added to their Internet products.For Heather Depe, CPA, of Minneapolis-based Simma Flottemesch & Orenstein Ltd., Internet tax research presents tremendous advantages. "I use it almost exclusively in my research," she said.

TAX CUTS SAVED BUSH, CHENEY $110K: President George W. Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney saved a combined $110,182 in taxes last year under the income tax cuts passed by their administration, according to an analysis of the 2004 tax returns released by the White House.President and Mrs. Bush reported total income of $784,219 on their tax return and paid $207,307 in income tax - $28,846 (12 percent) less than they would have under the pre-Bush tax law, according to a report by Citizens for Tax Justice, a Washington-based research and advocacy organization.

The Internal Revenue Service has named Janice J. Lambert as its chief financial officer.

Members of the President's Advisory Panel on Federal Tax Reform are set to discuss "return-free" filing, among other things, at their next meeting, slated for May 17.

RIA, a provider of tax compliance software and research, has partnered with SurePrep, a tax productivity and outsourcing concern to sell its proprietary SurePrep Express to RIA GoSystem clients.

MCI agreed to pay $100 million in cash to the state of Mississippi for back taxes the state claimed were owed by the company's predecessor, WorldCom.

A crackdown on abusive tax shelters that includes codifying the economic substance doctrine would create legal booby traps for small businesses and open the door for new abuses by unscrupulous tax shelter promoters, the American Institute of CPAs warned Congress.

H&R Block and HSBC Taxpayer Financial Services Inc. reached a tentative agreement to settle a 1998 Chicago class-action lawsuit related to refund anticipation loans.

With two dozen deals currently in the pipeline, business advisory and financial services provider Fiducial says that acquisitions will be the main engine of its growth over the next three years.

STF Services Corp. president Charles F. Ter Bush has left the Syracuse, N.Y.-based tax forms company to join LexisNexis as vice president for the tax and accounting market segment.

A newly issued revenue procedure, Rev. Proc. 2005-28, makes it easier for some taxpayers to adopt a simpler method of allocating and apportioning interest expenses in determining their net U.S. and foreign-source income for foreign tax credit purposes.

H&R Block Inc. reported total tax prep and related fees through April 15 of $2.4 billion -- up 7.3 percent over last year.

The President's Advisory Panel on Federal Tax Reform will hold its eighth meeting this week, said the body's chairman and vice-chairman, senators Connie Mack and John Breaux.