Finance

Computer Sciences Corp. said it would restate its fiscal 2007 results after examining the impact of FASB Interpretation No. 48, or FIN 48, and discovering accounting errors for fiscal 1997 through 2007.

The House of Representatives voted 220-175 to overhaul patent rules and place a ban on tax-planning method patents.

Although U.S. taxpayers contribute billions of dollars annually to support charitable causes, many of those very same charities are dipping deeper into the pockets of Americans by chiseling on their own taxes, government investigators charged.Auditors at the Government Accountability Office told lawmakers that charities and other tax-exempt organizations are shortchanging the Treasury to the tune of nearly $1 billion by neglecting to make payroll tax payments or pay other taxes required by the government.

The Senate Finance Committee continued its examination of whether to raise taxes on the earnings of managers of private equity firms and hedge funds by looking at the impact of carried interest taxation on pension funds.

While the Internal Revenue Service has issued a plan that adopts the IRS Oversight Board's goal of 86 percent voluntary compliance by 2009, National Taxpayer Advocate Nina Olson cautioned against IRS efforts to ramp up enforcement excessively and cut corners in its treatment of taxpayers if it is pressured to do too much too soon."For fiscal year 2008, both the Internal Revenue Service and the Taxpayers Advocate Service face similar challenges," she said, in the second of her two annual reports to Congress. "The IRS is under scrutiny for its efforts to close the tax gap, while the TAS is struggling to address taxpayer difficulties that arise as a result of these very efforts."

President Bush is considering the possibility of simplifying the corporate tax system, as long as the changes don't affect the amount of taxes the government collects.The president's announcement came on the heels of a conference convened by Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson in July, in which he proposed a cut in corporate taxes to make the U.S. more competitive.

The House Ways and Means Committee held hearings on proposals to raise taxes on managers of private equity firms and hedge funds, and to combat the expanding impact of the alternative minimum tax, as well as listening to testimony about the impact of the Bush tax cuts.

President Bush made several proposals late last week to relieve homeowners from the burden of the imploding mortgage market, just in time to grab Congress's attention as it returns this week from summer recess.

House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Charles Rangel, D-N.Y., plans to hold a hearing on fairness and equity in the Tax Code.

Two high-ranking senators are calling for the Government Accountability Office to investigate the growing problem of tax fraud related to identity theft and how it contributes to the tax gap.

Rep. John Dingell, D-Mich., said he plans to issue a proposal when Congress returns from recess that would impose stiff new taxes on gasoline and end the mortgage interest tax deduction on "McMansions," or homes greater than 3,000 square feet, as a way to discourage over-consumption of fuel.

Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., has written letters to the Big Four accounting firms asking what they are doing to let their financial institution clients know about waivers on mortgage accounting standards that could let borrowers refinance their loans.

Republican presidential candidate Rudolph Giuliani announced his tax proposals, saying he would make the Bush administration tax cuts permanent, eliminate inheritance taxes and reduce marginal tax rates.

CPAs who work as C-suite financial executives would like to see corporate America get more involved in issues such as health care, Social Security and the environment, according to a survey by the American Institute of CPAs.

Congress hopes to partially remedy the tax gap by making tax preparers more responsible for the positions their clients take on returns.Because paid preparers prepare over 62 percent of all individual income tax returns, they are a critical quality control for tax administration by helping to prevent noncompliance, according to an April report released by the Government Accountability Office.

Potential Republican presidential candidate Fred Thompson has written a letter indicating that he would be willing to support an overhaul of the Tax Code called the FairTax, which could replace the income tax system and all payroll taxes with a non-regressive national retail tax.

President Bush said he is mulling the possibility of simplifying the corporate tax system, as long as the changes don't affect the amount of taxes the government collects.

One of the more intriguing ideas in the energy bill that the House passed over the weekend was that of doing a "carbon audit" of the U.S. Tax Code. Exactly how Congress proposes to conduct such an audit is another matter.

Longstanding weaknesses in the financial systems of government agencies pose a "formidable challenge," according to a report released by the Government Accountability Office.

House lawmakers passed a $16 billion energy tax bill that does away with tax breaks for oil and gas companies and shifts the incentives to alternative energy, despite the threat of a veto from President Bush.