Finance

Right on time for the conclusion of tax season, the House has passed a bill that promises to make tax preparation easier, while also repealing the IRS Private Debt Collection Program.

Presidential hopeful Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., released the 2007 tax return for himself and his wife Michelle.

Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, ranking member of the Senate Finance Committee, defended the Internal Revenue Service's outsourcing of tax collections to private firms by pointing out the thousands of disciplinary actions taken against IRS employees.

The Senate Finance Committee heard testimony about U.S. tax policy at a hearing on tax fundamentals in advance of reform efforts that Congress plans to undertake.

The Senate has overwhelmingly passed a housing relief bill that includes a $7,000 tax credit for purchasers of foreclosed homes in addition to $4 billion in grants for local communities to buy and repair foreclosed properties.

Racing to find political common ground on estate tax policy before the Bush administration tax cuts expire, congressional leaders are urging Republicans and Democrats to “think outside the box” when considering reforms.Among the alternatives placed on the table for discussion during recent Senate Finance Committee hearings: proposals to tax the beneficiaries of inheritances, rather than estates, as well as options under which estate taxes would be levied based on the heir’s “access to sophisticated tax advice.”

The House Ways and Means Committee has approved a bill that would equalize the disclosure standards of tax preparers and their clients.

House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Charles Rangel, D-N.Y., has introduced a bill to help struggling homeowners with a refundable tax credit, even as a bipartisan Senate bill faced a threatened veto from the Bush administration.

The Senate passed an amendment to the compromise housing bill that will allow money-losing businesses to elect to use accumulated alternative minimum tax credits and research and development credits early.

Treasury Inspector General Faults IRS Security

The Senate Finance Committee heard testimony from Roby B. Sawyers, a professor in the College of Management at North Carolina State University and a member of the American Institute of CPAs' Tax Executive Committee, about the institute's recommendations for estate tax reform.

Senate Democratic and Republican leaders have reached a compromise on a bill to provide tax breaks and refinancing assistance to beleaguered homeowners hit by the mortgage crisis.

A new coalition wants to eliminate the taxation of Americans working abroad.

It didn't take long for critics to start throwing eggs at Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson's plan for overhauling the structure of the government's financial regulatory agencies.

On January 24, 2002, I gave a presentation, at the Large- and Medium-Sized Firms Practice Management Committee of the New York State Society of CPAs, entitled "Like the Energizer Bunny, the Enron Mess Keeps Going and Going." It seems I was right as Citigroup just settled a lawsuit in which it agreed to pay $1.66 billion to the Enron Bankruptcy Estate, which had filed bankruptcy and fraud claims against Citigroup in the United States Bankruptcy Court in New York.

The Center for Audit Quality marked its first anniversary with a report on its progress in improving public confidence in the audit process.The CAQ, which is affiliated with the American Institute of CPAs, originated in January 2007. Last year, it began a Public Dialogue Tour to gather ideas from investors about how to accomplish its goal. The CAQ plans two more stops on the tour this year, in Boston and its home base of Washington, D.C.

If you thought that the tax legislation passed at the end of 2007 — both the Alternative Minimum Tax relief legislation and the mortgage debt forgiveness relief legislation — finally resolved the issues that would have to be addressed for the 2007 tax return filing season, you were mistaken. Congress was not done creating issues that would impact those returns. The Economic Stimulus Act of 2008, signed by President Bush on Feb. 13, 2008, has created additional issues for 2007 return filers.Most of the direct impact will be on lower-income individuals — individuals who are not normally required to file tax returns but who may wish to do so in order to qualify to receive a rebate check authorized under the new legislation.

Presidential hopeful Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., has released seven years of tax returns, putting added pressure on rival Sen. Hillary Clinton, D-N.Y., to release her tax returns.

Senate Finance Committee leaders have questioned the terms of the recent taxpayer-backed sale of Bear Stearns to JPMorgan Chase.

A federal judge has ruled against some of the main provisions of a New Jersey law restricting interest rates and fees that can be charged on tax refund anticipation loans, even though the annual percentage rates average 115 percent.