Practice Management

Republicans in Congress hardened their resistance to President Barack Obama’s proposed higher taxes for top earners and demanded a spending-cut plan, as lawmakers in both parties said it’s becoming less likely an agreement can be enacted before the Christmas holiday.

With less than 30 days left in 2012, there is still time to do some year-end tax planning. This 2012 tax year is more difficult in that no one knows how the tax laws may change before the end of the year.

Montreal-based Richter, formerly RSM Richter Chamberland, merged with Toronto-based SBLR LLP Chartered Accountants.

President Barack Obama reduced his demand for tax increases to $1.4 trillion from $1.6 trillion as he and House Speaker John Boehner traded another round of offers and inched toward a budget agreement.

Billionaire investors Warren Buffett and George Soros are calling on Congress to increase the estate tax as lawmakers near a decision on tax policies that expire Dec. 31.

Former U.S. Congressman Wester Cooley was sentenced to a year and a day in prison following his guilty plea last year to hiding $494,000 in income from the Internal Revenue Service.

A recent Gallup survey found eight in 10 Americans consider it extremely or very important that Congress and President Obama agree on a plan to avoid the so-called fiscal cliff — automatic budget cuts and the expiration of Bush-era tax increases set for Jan. 1.

After a Sunday meeting between President Obama and Speaker of the House John Boehner, R-Ohio, their staff members reportedly continued negotiations Monday on how to avoid the fiscal cliff.

The Internal Revenue Service has issued a revenue procedure that said certain losses do not need to be taken into account in determining whether a transaction is considered a “reportable transaction.”

The Supreme Court has agreed to hear a pair of cases challenging the constitutionality of the federal Defense of Marriage Act and of California’s Proposition 8, which banned same-sex marriage, and the cases could have tax ramifications.