JACKSON HEWITT FILES CH. 11
Parsippany, N.J. - Jackson Hewitt Tax Service filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, but said that it has reached a definitive agreement with its secured lenders on a restructuring plan. The plan is expected to reduce the company's outstanding debt and interest expense, the company said, while putting the tax prep chain on a solid financial footing with an appropriate capital structure to support its business plan going forward. The company also filed a pre-packaged plan of re-organization that contains the terms of the restructuring. The company was hit hard the past two tax seasons by problems with its refund anticipation loan business after banking regulators told its main RAL provider, Santa Barbara Bank & Trust, to exit the RAL business.
IRS STRUGGLES TO CONTROL TAXPAYER ID THEFT
Washington, D.C. - The Internal Revenue Service found over 245,000 identity theft incidents last year, according to a new government report that assessed the IRS's efforts to stem the growing problem. Since 2008, the IRS has identified 470,000 incidents of identity theft affecting more than 390,000 taxpayers.
In its report, the Government Accountability Office acknowledged that the hundreds of thousands of taxpayers with tax problems caused by identity theft represent a relatively small percentage of the expected 140 million individual returns filed, but for those affected, the problems can be extremely serious.
FIELD CONVICTED OF TAX FRAUD
New York - Denis Field, the former chairman and CEO of accounting firm BDO Seidman, was convicted along with three co-defendants - two lawyers and a banker - of participating in a $7 billion tax shelter scheme that lasted a decade. A fifth co-defendant was acquitted.
According to prosecutors, the defendants, all of whom are CPAs, netted $130 million from the scheme. Field, 53, was not only the chairman and CEO of BDO Seidman at the time, but also the head of its national tax practice, and one of three heads of BDO's Tax Solutions Group.
