Tax strategies

The Senate passed a patent reform bill on Tuesday that contains provisions banning patents on tax strategies.

The Senate Finance Committee held hearings Tuesday to consider the Tax Code’s effect on job creation and economic growth.

President Obama credited the tax cut extension deal he forged with Congress for helping to turn around the unemployment problem.

The accounting profession’s drive for a more predictable and user friendly Federal Tax Code seems to be gaining traction with at least one segment of Congress: the freshly-elected corps of Tea Party activists and their conservative allies in the House and Senate.

Tax reform for business isn’t just about lowering the corporate tax rate. That’s what Patricia Thompson, chair of the AICPA’s Tax Executive Committee, told the House Ways and Means Subcommittee on Select Revenue Measures yesterday.

The House moved one step closer to repealing the expanded 1099 information reporting requirements in the Affordable Care Act and Small Business Jobs Act on Wednesday by approving a controversial offset to the cost of the repeal.

The Senate Finance Committee convened a hearing Tuesday aimed at making the Tax Code fairer and simpler, while making U.S. businesses more competitive.

A group calling itself US Uncut organized a series of protests over the weekend at Bank of America branches across the country to protest large corporations with unpaid income taxes.

Responding to press reports that the Obama administration is considering hitting small business with more tax hikes, U.S. Senator Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, ranking member of the Senate Finance Committee, called on the White House to take these tax increases off the table that threaten to “destroy the economic recovery our nation deserves.”

Whether or not the Obama administration budget proposal to add some clarity to worker classification sees the light of day, the employee vs. independent contractor issue will surely be undergoing increased scrutiny.

A tax credit that is supposed to help poverty-stricken communities is instead being used to finance at least two luxury hotels, an antique car museum, a small theater in an upscale neighborhood, and other dubious projects, while lining the pockets of wealthy banks and investors.

We’ve been operating without a budget for the past year, and despite the budget proposal this week, it appears likely that we will continue to operate the government under a series of continuing resolutions.

Nearly three quarters of nonprofit organizations are concerned that tax exemptions will be revoked in the next year or two, according to a new survey.

Before 2007, any part of a mortgage forgiven after a foreclosure, such as when the house was sold and the bank forgave a mortgage exceeding the home’s sale price, was considered taxable income, but that has changed now.

The unveiling of the Obama administration’s budget this week appeared to be only the opening act for what promises to be a long-running series of episodes involving spending, taxes, and cuts to favored and not-so-favored programs.

The House Committee on Small Business held hearings on repealing the unpopular expansion of 1099 information reporting in the health care reform bill.

The White House released its budget proposal for fiscal year 2012 on Monday, with plans for eliminating capital gains taxes on small business investment, while also getting rid of tax breaks for the wealthy and for fossil fuels.

Congressmen Brad Sherman, D-Calif., and Michael Conaway, R-Texas, have formed a Bipartisan Congressional CPA Caucus that they plan to co-chair.

Tax strategy patents have been around for more than a decade, ever since a federal appeals court in 1998 validated business method patents, including tax strategies.

The city of San Francisco is reportedly considering offering Twitter massive tax breaks to keep the growing social media company from moving outside the city to nearby Brisbane.