Tax strategies

The House Committee on Small Business held a hearing on business activity taxes and their impact on small businesses.

On a day when Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson and six major banks announced a 30-day moratorium on foreclosures on some types of property, the Internal Revenue Service said homeowners whose mortgage debts were partially or entirely forgiven could claim relief on a newly revised IRS form.

Now that clients have received their W-2 forms from their employers, we’re starting to get into the main part of tax season.

The Internal Revenue Service has released the Corporation Source Book, which presents balance sheet, income statement, tax and other statistics across various industrial sectors.

Michael Jackson has finally settled the outstanding $600,000 property tax debt on his Neverland Ranch.

Two large computer servers belonging to the District of Columbia tax office were found in a trash alcove behind a Ruby Tuesday restaurant.

The U.S. District Court for the Western District of Texas has barred Thell G. Prueitt of Kingsland, Texas, from preparing federal tax returns for others and from promoting various tax fraud schemes, said the Justice Department.

Unreported income from the cash economy and late-year Tax Code changes are the focus of the first of this year's two reports to Congress by National Taxpayer Advocate Nina E. Olson.In her report, Olson proposed a comprehensive strategy to address tax noncompliance in the cash economy, which accounts for the largest portion of the tax gap. The report identifies the lack of progress in addressing cash economy noncompliance as a most serious problem.

The Internal Revenue Service hopes that new interim guidance for tax preparers will ease concerns over the expanded preparer penalties and heightened standards of conduct that must be met to avoid the penalties.

The Mortgage Forgiveness Debt Relief Act of 2007 has introduced a new paradigm of tax strategies for those who are falling behind on their home mortgage payments (or anticipate falling behind as the result of a pending adjustable rate mortgage reset).

Spending of tax rebate money on shopping may be slower than politicians hope, according to a new survey.

President Bush said he would sign into law the economic stimulus package passed by Congress.

The Internal Revenue Service has improved its online refund-tracking tool and tax information publication.

A survey of leading corporate tax executives predicts that taxes will not be a major issue in Congress in 2008, apart from the one-year alternative minimum tax patch and the one-year extenders package.

Kellogg & Andelson Accountancy Corp. has acquired the Los Angeles office of a subsidiary of UHY Advisors.

The Senate and the House have passed an economic stimulus package that adds tax rebates for 20 million senior citizens and 250,000 disabled veterans to a package passed by the House last week.

New York Yankees captain Derek Jeter has reportedly settled his tax problems with the State of New York.

Gilman Ciocia has acquired Kelchlin Business Services, an accounting firm located in the Buffalo, N.Y., suburb of Depew.

The Social Security Administration and the Internal Revenue Service have moved several boxes on Form W-2.

The White House has issued its budget for the coming year, and as usual it is already drawing complaints.