Practice Management

Mark Ernst, the former chairman and CEO of H&R Block who went on to become deputy commissioner for operations support at the Internal Revenue Service, will be leaving the IRS later this year, according to an announcement Thursday by IRS Commissioner Doug Shulman.

Tax preparer Kertena Seabrook has been sentenced to 27 months in prison and ordered to pay $171,152 in restitution after she was convicted on 20 counts of aiding and assisting in the preparation of false tax returns.

Accounting firm Citrin Cooperman has changed its logo and other branding for the first time in 30 years.

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.