Tax strategies

Tighter IRS scrutiny of preparers and returns, staffing issues and a stagnant economy are facing tax professionals as they ready their practices for a new filing season.

The Internal Revenue Service is encouraging more taxpayers to take advantage of the "saver's credit."

Both the House and Senate passed a two-month extension of the payroll tax cut, unemployment benefits, and the “doc fix” for preserving the current Medicare reimbursement for physicians by unanimous consent on Friday morning, sending the measure to President Obama’s desk.

Bowing to pressure from fellow Republicans, a leading House Republican said Thursday he would introduce a bill Friday to extend the payroll tax cut and unemployment benefits for two months.

The Internal Revenue Service is offering some tips to help taxpayers lower their 2011 taxes before the calendar page changes to 2012.

President Obama and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ken., pressed House Republicans on Thursday to agree to a two-month extension of the payroll tax cut, even as Speaker of the House John Boehner, R-Ohio, insisted he was ready to negotiate.

House Republicans blocked the Senate’s two-month extension of the payroll tax cut and emergency unemployment benefits on Tuesday, setting up a confrontation between the two chambers.

The Senate has passed a two-month extension of the payroll tax cut and unemployment benefits, but House Republican leaders and some Democrats balked at the short-term extension.

Congressional leaders in both parties signaled they were working on a deal to extend the payroll tax cut and unemployment benefits for at least two months, while also agreeing on a spending bill that would avert a government shutdown.

New information released Wednesday on the holdings of U.S.-based multinational corporations is adding fresh ammunition to the dispute over whether companies should be given a tax holiday on repatriated foreign profits.

The tax plan advanced by Republican presidential candidate Newt Gingrich would have the effect of adding over $1 trillion to the federal deficit in a single year and give the overwhelming share of tax benefits to those at the upper end of the income scale.

A new study has cast doubt on claims from legislators and lobbyists that a tax holiday for multinational corporations on their repatriated foreign earnings would spark an economic revival in the U.S.

A bipartisan group of lawmakers are seeking to make sure an extension of the deduction for state and local sales tax payments is included in the tax extenders package that is expected to come before Congress early next year.

The American Institute of CPAs told the Internal Revenue Service at a hearing Thursday that it supports the agency’s overall goal of changing the U.S. tax system to one that matches tax return filings in real time with information returns from third parties.

Over half the financial professionals in a new survey said that tax increases should not be taken off the table in order for Washington to reach a deficit reduction agreement.

Nearly half of senior executives favor changing how corporate income earned outside the United States is taxed, according to a new survey, although many don’t expect much progress on the issue of corporate tax reform before the 2012 elections.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., offered Monday to compromise on how to pay for the payroll tax cut extension in an effort to convince more Republican lawmakers to vote for the bill.

Online sales tax collections would help states manage their budget problems, but could impose heavy burdens on small online merchants, executives from Internet and brick-and-mortar businesses told a congressional committee.

A new report from the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development finds the gap between rich and poor in OECD countries has reached its highest level in more than 30 years, and the traditionally redistributive effects of progressive income tax systems have become less effective since the mid-1990s.

Senate Democrats and Republicans were unable to muster the necessary number of votes to pass two competing bills to extend the expiring payroll tax cut on Thursday night.