Practice Management

A senior executive of the Upper Manhattan Empowerment Zone who is also a tax preparer has pleaded guilty to submitting false and fraudulent tax returns to the Internal Revenue Service and cashing approximately $250,000 in fraudulently obtained tax refund checks.

States and localities continued to raise their sales tax rates last quarter in order to generate more revenue to close their budget deficits, according to a new report.

With only weeks to go before next month’s game-changing midterm Congressional elections, the accounting profession is in position to make record-breaking contributions to the campaigns of key House and Senate candidates.

An Internal Revenue Service advisory committee has issued a report calling for a number of changes in the IRS’s information reporting rules, including the controversial provision in the health care reform bill that mandates expanded 1099 information reporting for businesses.

The tax debt relief industry is searching for loopholes in a Federal Trade Commission rule that could eliminate its main source of revenue.

A pair of U.S. senators has written to IRS Commissioner Douglas Shulman and the heads of a dozen other federal agencies asking why they have erected roadblocks to investigative efforts of their agencies’ watchdogs, their inspectors general.

The National Association of Chain Drug Stores has sent a letter to the Internal Revenue Service asking it to delay rules implementing provisions in the health care reform bill that would prohibit the use of debit cards, such as those used in flexible spending accounts and health reimbursement accounts, to buy over-the-counter prescribed medications.

Legendary economist Milton Friedman once joked that you could take any three letters from the alphabet, scramble them in any order you want, and you'll end up with an acronym for a federal agency we could do without.

AccountantsWorld president Dr. Chandra Bhansali describes how the current client accounting model doesn't work to accountants' advantage, and what needs to change about it.

H&R Block has filed suit against its refund anticipation loan provider, HSBC, seeking to require the bank to provide the funding for RALs and refund anticipation checks next tax season.