Finance

Reports have surfaced that the federal debt commission (officially known as the National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform) is considering the heretofore unimaginable elimination of popular tax breaks, including deductions on mortgage interest, as part of its report due on December 1.

The Internal Revenue Service’s comparative study of its private debt collection program was not designed soundly enough to support its decision to discontinue contracting out debt collection to private companies, according to a new report by the Government Accountability Office.

President Barack Obama accused the Republican leadership in Congress of vowing to repeal the financial reform bill as the midterm elections approach next week.

It’s been five years since Connie Mack, as chair of President Bush’s Advisory Panel on Federal Tax Reform, said that it would “take a fresh look at the existing Tax Code and will formulate options for making the tax system simple, fair and productive.

Vice President Joe Biden indicated that the White House could be ready to make a deal with Republicans on expanding the level of income that would qualify for the Bush tax cuts extension.

Tax forms and other government documents will now be subject to a kind of literacy test, under a new government law that so far has not attracted a whole lot of attention.

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.

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

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.

For the second year in a row, monthly Social Security and Supplemental Security Income benefits for more than 58 million Americans will not automatically increase in 2011, the Social Security Administration said Friday, but Congress will try to pass a law to provide seniors with the extra money anyway.

Attorneys general in all 50 states have joined together to investigate widespread use of fake documents and signatures in mortgage foreclosures by lenders across the country.

IRS OFFERS GUIDANCE ON ECONOMIC SUBSTANCE

Four members of Congress have written to IRS Commissioner Doug Shulman asking him to investigate potential tax irregularities by three tax-exempt groups that run college football bowl championships.

Patrice Tierney, the wife of Rep. John F. Tierney, D-Mass., has pleaded guilty to filing false tax returns in connection with an offshore Internet gambling scheme.

Sen. Olympia Snowe, R-Maine, criticized the U.S. Small Business Administration after it missed a deadline to send comments to the Treasury Department and the IRS about a controversial new 1099 reporting requirement for businesses.

At the request of the Federal Trade Commission, a federal judge has halted the business operations of American Tax Relief, a company that heavily advertised its ability to help taxpayers who were in trouble with the IRS and allegedly bilked consumers out of more than $60 million by falsely claiming it could reduce their tax debts.

The Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration has agreed to the request from Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, ranking member of the Senate Finance Committee, and six other committee members to conduct an investigation of whether Obama Administration officials illegally accessed and disclosed confidential taxpayer information involving a particular taxpayer.

The lame duck session slated to begin in mid-November leaves Congress a massive amount of unfinished business.

The American Institute of CPAs and 18 other groups have written a letter to congressional leaders encouraging them to ban tax strategy patents before adjourning.

Senate Finance Committee chairman Max Baucus, D-Mont., has sent a letter to IRS Commissioner Doug Shulman requesting him to investigate the use of tax-exempt groups for political advocacy.