Practice Management

The Internal Revenue Service has updated for three states the tables that taxpayers can use to determine whether they'll benefit from deducting sales tax rather than state and local income taxes.

Washington - Senate Finance Committee chair Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, and ranking member Max Baucus, D-Mont., are calling for an independent investigation by the Government Accountability Office of the Offer in Compromise Program.In a letter to Treasury Secretary John Snow, the senators had questioned the Internal Revenue Service and Treasury implementation and administration of the OIC program. Based on the IRS response, the senators said that they have called for an investigation.

IRS INTEREST RATES UNCHANGED FOR THE FIRST QUARTER OF 2005: Interest rates for calculating the amount owed on refunds and deficiencies will remain unchanged for the calendar quarter beginning Jan. 1, 2005, the Internal Revenue Service said.The rates will remain at 5 percent for overpayments (4 percent for corporations); 5 percent for underpayments; 7 percent for large corporate underpayments; and 2.5 percent for the portion of a corporate overpayment exceeding $10,000. The rates are computed from the federal short-term rate based on daily compounding determined during October 2004.

President Bush has named two former senators to lead a new nine-member bipartisan panel charged with arriving at options to reform the tax code.

Integrated human resources and benefits services provider RSM McGladrey Employer Services Inc. has acquired SourceWeb, an HR/payroll and self-service product from Minneapolis-based Ceridian Corp.

With the tax law becoming increasingly complex, it is no surprise that there often can be several well-intentioned interpretations of a particular provision. Also no surprise is the expectation of many clients that a fee for planning advice should almost always result in an exponential decrease in overall tax liability.

In a display of bipartisan cooperation, the Senate and the House on Thursday unanimously approved legislation allowing extra time for 2004 deductions for tsunami relief donations, just two days after it was proposed by Senate Finance Committee chair Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, and ranking member Max Baucus, D-Mont.

Operating under the theory that bigger is better, regional CPA firms Reinsel & Co. LLP and Kuntz Lesher LLP have joined forces to strengthen their presence in Southeastern Pennsylvania.

LBMC Technologies, an affiliate of top-ranked CPA firm Lattimore Black Morgan & Cain, has merged with IT Solutions.

Taxpayers who misreported their income to snare unjustified Earned Income Tax Credits are draining $2 billion a year from the U.S. Treasury, auditors at the Government Accountability Office told Congress.