Practice Management

While the Internal Revenue Service's reward program for turning in tax cheats does a good job bringing in money, it's still in need of some revamping, a ccording to a report from the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration.

Bartolomei Pucciarelli LLC has acquired the practice of CPA Sharon Lamont, a former president of the New Jersey Society of CPAs.

The Internal Revenue Service has filled three open positions in its Criminal Investigation, International and Tax Exempt and Government Entities divisions.

The Internal Revenue Service has been given the go-ahead to continue a new private debt collection program with the trio of companies it originally awarded contracts to in March.

The chairman of the House Ways & Means Committee has introduced a new bill to permanently raise the estate tax exemption level to $5 million in 2010.

The Internal Revenue Service is providing additional time -- through Oct. 16 -- to file 2004 and 2005 individual income tax returns for taxpayers hit hardest by Hurricane Katrina.

All sorts of press releases and product announcements come my way throughout the course of a week, besides all the material I go out seeking to consider running on WebCPA.

The tax-exempt status of more than 550 hospitals appears to be the latest nonprofit segment coming under scrutiny by the Internal Revenue Service.

IRS TAKES ON CREDIT COUNSELORS' TAX EXEMPTION: The Internal Revenue Service said that it plans to revoke the tax-exempt status of the 41 credit-counseling agencies it has audited as part of a crackdown on industry practices.Over the past two years, the IRS has audited 63 credit-counseling agencies, representing more than half of the $1 billion industry's revenues. The 41 organizations whose audits have been completed have either already had their exemptions revoked, or the IRS has proposed revocation and the groups are appealing, a process that can take several months.

The Taxpayer Advocacy Panel has released its 2005 Annual Report summarizing its new recommendations for improvements in the way the Internal Revenue Service does business.The report forwarded suggestions to the IRS representing a variety of concerns, including six suggestions regarding refunds and refund anticipation loans, and recommendations to change the instructions for offers in compromise.