Tax strategies

Julie and Brett Redden are in a hurry for the paperwork to go through for the six-year-old girl they are planning to adopt from China.

It’s been awhile since serious consideration has been given to estate tax reform, but with the Jan. 1, 2013 deadline looming, more people are offering their views on the subject.

The Senate Finance Committee held a hearing Monday on tax reform and its impact on state and local tax and fiscal policy.

It’s been said that you can’t tell the players without a scorecard. Where I need a scorecard is to figure out which tax provisions expired at the end of 2011, and those slated to give up the ghost at the end of 2012. Luckily, the Joint Economic Committee has a Web site that lists all of the expiring provisions of recent memory, together with the dates they expired or will expire.

The House has approved Republican-backed legislation to provide a tax cut of up to 20 percent for one year to companies with fewer than 500 employees.

The large differences in excise tax rates for various smoking products are prompting consumers with a tobacco habit to shift their smoking habits to pipes and larger cigars, according to a new government study.

Financial executives in the medical device industry say the new excise tax included in the health care reform law will take a major impact on reducing their bottom line, according to a new survey by KPMG.

With Democrats and Republicans in Congress battling over competing tax legislation this week, one new bill should be able to attract bipartisan support.

Senate Republicans blocked a bill promoted by the Obama administration that would impose a minimum tax on millionaires.

President Barack Obama and congressional Republicans square off this week over tax hikes for millionaires and tax cuts for businesses, with both sides seen as more interested in scoring political points than in fixing the tax code or shrinking the deficit.

While every state offers tax incentives to attract, retain and expand businesses and jobs, few states actually provide good evidence that the tax breaks deliver an effective return on investment, according to a new report.

President Obama told a crowd of students and supporters that Congress should vote to approve his plan to ensure that millionaires don’t pay lower tax rates than the middle class.

House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan, R-Wis., talked about how tax policies need to emphasize economic growth during a speech Tuesday, in which he also took aim at President Obama’s budget.

The commissioner of the Internal Revenue Service warned on Thursday of "a real disaster" for taxpayers next year should Congress miss a December 31 deadline to decide on billions in major tax provisions.

Internal Revenue Service Commissioner Doug Shulman described in a speech Thursday how the agency is using information from its tax preparer regulation initiative to identify practitioners who are showing patterns of tax fraud.

President Obama lashed out at the Republican budget plan passed last week by the House and endorsed by Mitt Romney.

States are cracking down on software and devices that help businesses cheat on taxes at the cash register.

About 11 million homeowners owe more than their homes are worth, according to real estate data firm CoreLogic, and while taxes may not be the first thing they think about in deciding what to do, all the various options have tax consequences.

The Internal Revenue Service reported Monday that the number of completed Advance Pricing Agreements, in which the IRS and multinational corporate taxpayers work out voluntary agreements on transfer pricing, fell last year as the agency coped with reorganization and personnel shifts.

Columnists Jones and Luscombe examine the tax treatment of frequent flier and rewards plans