Practice Management

The recent fiscal cliff tax deal extends the ability to treat mortgage insurance premiums as qualified residential interest, and the Internal Revenue Service is providing guidance on how to report the premiums on Form 1098, both electronically and on paper.

PMB Helin Donovan LLP of Austin, Texas has merged in San Francisco-based BBR LLP.

Guilmartin, DiPiro & Sokolowski LLC of Middletown, Conn., and Hamden, Conn.-based Lipman & Co. PC have merged.

SingerLewak LLP has merged with the San Francisco-based firm, Acquavell, Chiarelli, Shuster, Berkower & Co. LLP.

The Treasury Department and the Internal Revenue Service have issued a long-awaited set of final regulations implementing the information reporting and withholding tax provisions of the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act aimed at combating offshore tax evasion, with far-reaching implications for U.S.-born taxpayers abroad, in addition to foreign financial institutions as well as U.S. banks.

Tax seminars, new websites, new service to help clients gauge M&A deal values and more...

The Internal Revenue Service has provided guidance on the monthly transit benefit that was extended in the fiscal cliff deal earlier this month and how employers who paid more than the maximum exclusion limit can fix the discrepancy.

Preparers who add more employees during tax season -- especially employees new to a practice -- must develop standards of communication and management, according to the Income Tax School’s white paper, “Leveling the Playing Field: How to Compete with the National Firms.”

The Internal Revenue Service faced challenges last tax season providing telephone service to taxpayers and responding to their correspondence, continuing the negative trends in recent years despite some efficiency gains and efforts to improve service, according to a new report by the Government Accountability Office.

Despite efforts by the Internal Revenue Service to prevent tax fraud by prison inmates, the problem has been growing with the amount of fraudulent tax returns filed by prisoners and identified by the IRS increasing from more than 18,000 in calendar year 2004 to more than 91,000 tax returns in 2010, with the refunds claimed on these returns climbing from $68 million to $757 million.