Practice Management

Highlights in tax news

Three bills before Congress could offer small businesses some tax help.

The House and Senate passed a highway bill Friday that contains provisions to prevent a doubling of the interest rates for subsidized Stafford student loans.

An outside advisory committee to the Internal Revenue Service is asking the agency to reinforce its standards for security, privacy and fraud prevention, including “phantom prepared” returns.

Well, now we know the answer. The individual mandate in the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, which the Administration has variously said was a both a tax and not a tax, is, in fact, a tax. That’s what the Supreme Court has called it, as a reason for finding it constitutional.

The House Judiciary Committee’s Crime Subcommittee held a hearing Thursday on the growing problem of identity theft and income tax preparation fraud.

The Internal Revenue Service mails lien notices to taxpayers in a timely manner as required by law, but does not always follow its own regulations for notifying taxpayer representatives and processing undelivered lien notices, according to a new report.

Congressional Democrats on the House Ways and Means Committee have introduced a pair of bills to extend the production tax credit for wind energy manufacturers through the end of 2013 and provide a 10 percent income tax credit for employer payroll increases this year.

Only 26 percent of small businesses actually employ full-time or part-time accounting and/or legal help, according to a new survey, even though 64 percent of small business owners say that legal issues should be handled by professionals.

A new Web site called the Accounting Practice Exchange aims to help accountants and tax preparers sell their practices.