Practice management

Just in time for the New Year, the Internal Revenue Service has expanded its online rebuttal of frivolous tax arguments to provide some amusing holiday reading.

President Bush signed into law a one-year patch for the alternative minimum tax, in addition to a $555-billion omnibus spending bill to fund government operations through 2008.

The Internal Revenue Service has issued a new tax form for employees who have been misclassified as independent contractors.

Mike Huckabee, the former governor of Arkansas, and 2008 presidential hopeful, is hoping to gain the support of tax-reform advocates by promoting the Fair Tax, which abolishes the Internal Revenue Service as well as all federal personal and corporate income taxes, gift, estate, capital gains, alternative minimum, Social Security, Medicare, and self-employment taxes, and replaces them with a single federal retail sales tax.

Spurred by revenue increases in its payroll and human resources units, payroll and benefits outsourcing provider Paychex Inc. posted an 11 percent rise in second quarter profits, to $147.1 million for the period ended Nov. 30.

The Internal Revenue Service has issued an updated version of Form 990, which charities are required to file annually to retain their tax-exempt status, and is giving small tax-exempt organizations time to adjust.

Tracy Crevar Warren has built a successful consulting business as president and CEO of the Crevar Group, which provides growth consulting, training and coaching for accounting and other professional services firms.

Due to an error, an Industry Leader Q&A this week was mistakenly attributed to Gale Crosley, a principal at Crosley & Co. The comments in that Q&A were not made by her and do not represent her views. The comments were, in fact, those of Tracy Crevar Warren, president and CEO of the Crevar Group. We regret the error.

The House has again passed the Mortgage Forgiveness Debt Relief Act, an effort to help people whose homes have been foreclosed by canceling taxes on any mortgage debt they have been forgiven.

The House approved an amended version of a bill that delivers tax relief to members of the armed services, in addition to emergency volunteers.

The House has passed a fix for the alternative minimum tax, voting 352-64 to keep up to 23 million taxpayers from falling prey to the AMT.

The Treasury Department has issued a report on improving the competitiveness of the U.S. business tax system, offering three alternative approaches designed to cut the corporate tax rate in the U.S. compared to other industrialized countries.

The Internal Revenue Service has issued guidance on whether a taxpayer can claim a dependency exemption deduction for an unrelated child.

The Internal Revenue Service improved most of its filing season services during 2007, but there are still opportunities for better performance this coming season, according to a new report.

IRS is driven in its desire to close the tax gap and views tax practitioners as being an obstacle in the middle, according to Charles Rettig with the law firm of Hochman, Salkin, Toscher & Perez, P.C.,in Beverly Hills, Calif.

Periodically, the partners of all accounting firms should pause and assess the strategic direction of the firm. Strategy and tactics are easily confused, and I've worked with many firms that hold a strategic advance only to get bogged down in tactical detail. So what's the difference?Strategy deals with direction. It deals with "what we are about." It deals with "What will we look like in three or five years?" Tactics are those necessary action steps that we must take every day, week or month that will get us to that future state.

Environmental whistleblower Marrita Murphy has asked the U.S. Supreme Court to hear her civil rights tax appeal after another appeals court reversed its own original ruling.

A computer program the Internal Revenue Service has been developing to expedite tax-exempt status requests is behind schedule, over budget and not performing all that well either, according to a report from the Treasury Department's in-house watchdog.

The Internal Revenue Service has appointed Tim Hubbs, president and CEO of Drake Software, as the chairman of its Electronic Tax Advisory Committee.

Notice 2008-1 provides rules under which a 2 percent shareholder/employee in an S corporation is entitled to the deduction under Section 162(l) for accident and health insurance premiums paid or reimbursed by the S corporation and included in a shareholder or employee's gross income.