Tax research

The economic turmoil of the past year presents a unique opportunity for accountants to broaden their practices to include financial planning.

The Internal Revenue Service has set Monday, Jan. 5, as the deadline for victims of Hurricanes Gustav and Ike to qualify for tax relief.

A commission is expected to recommend a 50 percent increase in federal gasoline taxes to help fund infrastructure projects.

Former New York City Police Commissioner Bernard Kerik pleaded not guilty last week to tax fraud charges.

The families of tax attorney Atif Irfan and his brother Kashif were removed from an AirTran Airways flight after other passengers complained of suspicious comments they overheard.

The Internal Revenue Service Advisory Council's 2008 Report contains more than 70 recommendations on a wide variety of issues affecting tax administration. The recommendations focus on communication, relief and assistance due to the economic downturn."It's refreshing to see that communications are a concern," said Robert Kerr, senior director of government relations at the National Association of Enrolled Agents. "The IRS is charged with a bifurcated task - enforcement and education. In both realms they have to communicate fairly complex things."

One technique for giving better focus to tax planning in a new year is to look back at the old one. Our column for this issue of Accounting Today uses this strategy, looking at significant 2008 tax developments from the perspective of their impact on tax planning in 2009.In examining 2008 developments for this review, we found that our results fit neatly into a Top 10 list - coincidentally, long a staple of New Year's forecasting. Our list gathers significant 2008 tax developments based on their impact on certain issues or themes. Our list focuses only on those developments that have an impact on strategies that may be implemented in 2009 - that's the reason why a significant amount of tax legislation didn't make the list, but also the reason why some letter rulings and similar types of developments made the cut.

CCH has added a state tax citation capability to its state tax research products.

A Tax Court judge has ruled that taxes on elderly gamblers' casino winnings are not discriminatory.

Financial statement services, especially those involving audits, third-party creditors, and fraud, produce the largest claims in terms of total dollar amounts incurred (severity), according to a new report from insurer Camico. Tax claims are the most frequent, but audit claims are typically the most severe. When review and compilation claims are added to the mix, it becomes evident that financial statement services have had the largest magnitude in claims dollars.Tax issues involving income tax, estate tax, and entity selection (Sub-C or S) are frequently prone to claims. Tax engagements represent 56 percent of all CAMICO claims when measured by frequency. More is at camico.com.

Accounting firm Eisner LLP has formed a Tax Recovery Assistance Task Force to help investors who have suffered losses as a result of Bernard Madoff's fraudulent investment scheme.

Once again it’s the time of year for me to make resolutions that I probably won’t keep for five minutes.

The Internal Revenue Service should reexamine the "tolerance levels" it uses to request missing tax forms and schedules from taxpayers, the Treasury Department's inspector general recommended in a new report.

The Internal Revenue Service and the Treasury Department said they would consider a complicated tax maneuver involving controlled foreign corporations a "transaction of interest," but stopped short of identifying it as a "tax avoidance transaction."

An analysis of charitable foundations set up by professional basketball players found that many of them spend only a fraction of their money on charitable activities.

Tax and accounting software vendor Intuit made BusinessWeek's list of the World's Most Influential Companies.

The Internal Revenue Service is proposing temporary regulations on foreign base company sales income.

The Internal Revenue Service has finalized the revised Form 990 and 990-EZ information returns that tax-exempt organizations will need to file next year.

The Internal Revenue Service has given Section 529 tuition programs the ability to change their investment strategies more frequently in response to the financial crisis.

Lawmakers have passed more than 100 new tax law changes that could help millions of individual taxpayers save money on their taxes this coming season.