Tax strategies

For a plan unlikely to become law anytime soon, Representative Dave Camp’s proposal to revamp the tax code is causing a lot of agitation among U.S. companies.

Americans who have been evading taxes through Swiss bank accounts are being advised by tax lawyers to come forward before the Justice Department steps up its own pursuit in response to Senate critics.

House Ways and Means Committee chairman Dave Camp, R-Mich., has released his long-awaited draft legislation on tax reform, to mixed reviews.

Credit Suisse Group AG helped American customers hide as much as $10 billion in assets from the Internal Revenue Service, more than double the amount previously known, according to a U.S. Senate committee report.

Grant Thornton has released a set of tax season tips for both individuals and businesses.

About 52 percent of Americans intend to spend their annual tax refund on necessary expenses such as loans, credit cards and other household expenses, while another 30 percent plan to put the money into savings and only 8 percent plan to invest the tax refund money, according to a new survey.

The American Institute of CPAs has sent a letter outlining a set of legislative proposals to the leaders of Congress’s two main tax committees, the House Ways and Means Committee and the Senate Finance Committee, recommending ways to simplify the tax laws and make them fairer.

Forty-five percent of the 1,000 investors in a recent survey expect to receive a tax refund, and among them, 61 percent plan to save or invest the money, according to a poll by TD Ameritrade

Group-of-20 nations agreed to implement a global standard for automatically exchanging information between tax authorities by the end of 2015, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development said.

The Treasury Department and the Internal Revenue Service released a final package of regulations Thursday to implement the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act and amend the regulations to align them with existing tax rules.

The U.S. Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations will hold a hearing next week on a crackdown on offshore tax evasion that has stalled as prosecutors conduct criminal probes of 14 banks, including Credit Suisse Group AG.

The top Republican tax writer in Congress will release a draft plan to revamp the U.S. tax code amid political odds that are stacked against him.

The Internal Revenue Service has released a Transfer Pricing Audit Roadmap to help the transfer pricing specialists in its Large Business & International division successfully audit the tax strategies of multinational companies.

A proposed Swiss-German tax accord is dead and buried amid growing public opposition in Germany to any agreement that’s seen as too easy on evaders, senior members of Chancellor Angela Merkel’s coalition said.

Senators Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., and Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, have introduced bipartisan legislation to reinstate a tax incentive for the production of domestic biodiesel fuel.

Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., has been confirmed as chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, succeeding Max Baucus, D-Mont., who was confirmed last week as Ambassador to China.

The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development has developed a new global standard for automatic exchange of tax information among nations in response to a mandate from finance leaders of the G20 countries to combat tax avoidance and evasion.

Rep. Blake Farenthold, R-Texas, has reintroduced legislation to provide tax exemptions to American athletes who win medals in the Olympics.

Some locations of the Planet Fitness health club chain have begun charging some of their members a portion of the indoor tanning services tax mandated by the Affordable Care Act, whether or not they use the tanning services.

With tax season in full swing, it’s a good reminder that families with household employees have some impending deadlines. As most tax professionals are aware, the often overlooked household employment taxes – or “nanny taxes” – present a unique set of challenges.