Tax strategies

Vertex has announced an online certification program through which continuing professional education credits can be earned.

House Democrats unveiled their health care reform package after assembling the various components passed this summer by three separate committees.

Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner and Housing and Urban Development Secretary Shaun Donovan have called on Congress to extend the First-Time Homebuyers Tax Credit past its Dec. 1 expiration date, while putting in place strong anti-fraud measures.

The IRS’s Information Reporting Program Advisory Committee has released a report outlining recommendations on a wide range of tax administration issues, including creating new forms and instructions, and reporting of a customer’s basis in securities transactions.

IRS Commissioner Doug Shulman had some news for CPAs gathered to hear him speak at an AICPA conference on Monday: high-income individuals are going to be in the agency’s cross-hairs now.

Democratic leaders of key House and Senate committees have introduced legislation to force foreign financial institutions, trusts and corporations to provide information about their U.S. account holders, grantors and owners.

If someone said to me a decade ago that the ideas that tax planners use, some on a daily basis, might be violating a patent, I would have dismissed it as crazy talk.

A new study by KPMG has found more governments worldwide imposing value-added taxes and goods and services taxes to make up for declining revenue from other sources, and warns the U.S. may follow suit.

Recent conversations in the nonprofit world increasingly surround "good governance" within nonprofit organizations. For years, many looked at good governance as board members contributinglarge sums of money to their organizations, while also making sure thatthe particular organization is following its mission.

Eighty-three percent of companies have experienced an increased number of audits due to state and local tax revenue shortfalls, according to a new survey.

CCH has introduced IRC/Multistate Personal and Corporate Income Tax Comparison Smart Charts on its CCH IntelliConnect Research Service.

For those who question the relationship between shortsighted tax policy and the economy, consider the possible consequences of taxing carried interest.

The Senate Finance Committee has approved its long-awaited version of the health care reform bill by a 14-9 vote.

There continue to be rumblings that Congress may repeal the LIFO accounting method for inventory.

IMGCAP(1)]Today, more than three years since it was issued, FIN48 remains the bane of many tax departments’ existence.

Among the revenue proposals detailed in the administration’s fiscal 2010 budget are some provisions that might negatively affect small businesses and tax preparers. The American Institute of CPAs has weighed in on a number of these, including the codification of the economic substance doctrine, information reporting on payments to corporations, increasing the level of the information penalties, and expanding the requirement for electronic filing by return preparers.

New Jersey ranks at the bottom of the list in a new study of the comparative business friendliness of tax systems in the 50 states, while South Dakota is counted as most business friendly.

The Treasury Department’s Inspector General for Tax Administration has released a report recommending that the IRS seek mandatory electronic filing of individual tax returns by paid preparers, and legislation is being readied to write such a requirement into law.

The State of Minnesota has decided to end its income tax reciprocity program with Wisconsin, effective Jan. 1, 2010.

New America Software has formally released its MultiTax software for download after about a year of beta testing with various tax preparation businesses.