Practice management

A roundup of tax news from the previous month

The Taxpayer Advocate says the problem isn't what you think

I don’t know about you, but there’s nothing like blistering 90-degree days with high humidity and quick-forming violent afternoon thunderstorms to get your adrenaline going. Or going in the wrong direction.

Self-described conservative and Tea Party groups seeking tax-exempt status were asked more questions by the Internal Revenue Service and had longer delays than progressive organizations, according to an analysis by the House Ways and Means Committee.

Liechtensteinische Landesbank AG, a bank based in Vaduz, Liechtenstein, has agreed to pay more than $23.8 million to the United States and entered into a non-prosecution agreement with the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York under which it produced account files of more than 200 noncompliant U.S. taxpayers.

These days you’re not likely to pick up an accounting publication or surf the blogosphere without coming across an article on portals, or more specifically, client portals for file sharing.

President Barack Obama, prodding Congress to consider fresh economic proposals after two years of gridlock, called for restructuring business taxes so long as the initial revenue generated goes toward job creation.

Even IRS agents can make simple mistakes in business, such as violating the old adage to “put it in writing.” Even so, the Tax Court in a recent case believed the IRS agent’s testimony regarding an oral contract she had with her mother-in-law.

The leaders of Congress’s two main tax committees continued their tax reform road show tour with a stop at a New Jersey small business that makes kitchen appliances.

Better oversight of IRS revenue officers who are assigned to collect overdue taxes is needed to ensure their actions are completed on a timely basis, according to a new government report.

Whether it’s locked in audit and tax preparation systems, time and billing records, or lying dormant in individual Excel files, there’s a huge amount of value in data residing in CPA firms’ information systems simply waiting to be mined and turned into profitability and growth.

A longtime Internal Revenue Service employee was indicted on charges of laundering the proceeds of marijuana sales.

The IRS is reminding taxpayers that it has unveiled a “simpler option” to figure the business use of a home.

What companies need to know as the IRS shifts its compliance focus

Employers are still misclassifying millions of workers as independent contractors, instead of employees, according to a recent government report.

A financial technician who worked in a Boone County, Ky., office of the Internal Revenue Service has been charged with multiple crimes relating to her unauthorized access of an IRS computer to obtain personal information about taxpayers.

The Internal Revenue Service’s Return Preparer Office said it is sending letters to 3,000 tax preparers who failed to use a valid Preparer Tax Identification Number.

Last week, one of the “girlie” cable channels had a weeklong Christmas-in-July event, where they showed Christmas movies the whole week. (In case you’re wondering, it’s my wife, not me, who watches this particular channel). But the thought occurred that if it’s time to start thinking about Christmas, then it’s also time to begin considering end-of-year tips and planning strategies to offer clients as we approach the beginning of fall.

Senators Tom Harkin, D-Iowa, and Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, led a bipartisan group of five senators in introducing legislation to increase the alternative tax liability limitation for small property and casualty insurance companies.

The Internal Revenue Service has issued a revenue procedure that clarifies the rules for when a company uses the deferral method of accounting for advance payments that are received by the taxpayer for the sale of gift cards that are redeemable by an unrelated entity.