Practice management

The fact that the new regulations under Code Section 199, released on May 24, 2006, are the final regulations should not be interpreted as an indication that the Treasury and the Internal Revenue Service will not be looking at Code Sec. 199 for a while.For one thing, the final regulations were accompanied by temporary and proposed regulations covering specific issues, and a statement that none of the regulations, final or proposed, address the changes made to Code Sec. 199 by the newly-enacted Tax Increase Prevention and Reconciliation Act of 2005. As predicted by the Treasury in originally opposing the adoption of Code Sec. 199, this is becoming one of those all-too-common code sections where even lengthy guidance is never enough and the questions keep coming.

The energy industry hopes that anticipated public guidance regarding Section 45 of the Internal Revenue Code will provide significant clarity on tax credit issues for projects producing electricity from open-loop biomass projects."Currently, there's a logjam when it comes to doing deals involving open-loop biomass projects as the industry does not have clear guidance on various issues," said David S. Lowman Jr., a tax partner in the Energy Practice Group at Hunton & Williams LLP in Richmond, Va., who works with clients on issues related to various energy tax credits.

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The Internal Revenue Service announced regulatory revisions that the agency hopes will remove impediments to e-filing for corporations and shareholders."This is a win-win situation for businesses, shareholders and the IRS," said Commissioner Mark W. Everson. "Businesses and shareholders will be relieved of excessive reporting obligations that really no longer made sense, while the IRS will still receive the information it needs for compliance. As a bonus, a number of roadblocks to IRS e-file also will be removed."

The Internal Revenue Service will issue guidance clarifying the 20 percent penalty for executives divesting a deferred compensation arrangement.

At the beach earlier this week, my sister found herself on the receiving end of a delivery from a seagull -- much to her horror at the moment, and the amusement of everyone I've told the story to since.

The Internal Revenue Service's headquarters in Washington will likely remain closed for at least the next 30 days due to flooding and electrical outages.

The Senate Finance Committee approved legislation that would empower the Internal Revenue Service to hit sex traffickers with major fines and lengthy prison sentences for failing to file employment paperwork and withhold taxes for the women and girls under their command.

Torrential rain in the Washington area has lead the Internal Revenue Service to close down its main offices through the rest of the week.

State tax revenues for all 50 states totaled $146.6 billion in the first quarter of 2006, up 6.8 percent from the same period in 2005, according to t he Nelson A. Rockefeller Institute of Government.

While the Internal Revenue Service's reward program for turning in tax cheats does a good job bringing in money, it's still in need of some revamping, a ccording to a report from the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration.

The Internal Revenue Service has filled three open positions in its Criminal Investigation, International and Tax Exempt and Government Entities divisions.

The Internal Revenue Service has been given the go-ahead to continue a new private debt collection program with the trio of companies it originally awarded contracts to in March.

The chairman of the House Ways & Means Committee has introduced a new bill to permanently raise the estate tax exemption level to $5 million in 2010.

The Internal Revenue Service is providing additional time -- through Oct. 16 -- to file 2004 and 2005 individual income tax returns for taxpayers hit hardest by Hurricane Katrina.

All sorts of press releases and product announcements come my way throughout the course of a week, besides all the material I go out seeking to consider running on WebCPA.

The tax-exempt status of more than 550 hospitals appears to be the latest nonprofit segment coming under scrutiny by the Internal Revenue Service.

IRS TAKES ON CREDIT COUNSELORS' TAX EXEMPTION: The Internal Revenue Service said that it plans to revoke the tax-exempt status of the 41 credit-counseling agencies it has audited as part of a crackdown on industry practices.Over the past two years, the IRS has audited 63 credit-counseling agencies, representing more than half of the $1 billion industry's revenues. The 41 organizations whose audits have been completed have either already had their exemptions revoked, or the IRS has proposed revocation and the groups are appealing, a process that can take several months.

The Taxpayer Advocacy Panel has released its 2005 Annual Report summarizing its new recommendations for improvements in the way the Internal Revenue Service does business.The report forwarded suggestions to the IRS representing a variety of concerns, including six suggestions regarding refunds and refund anticipation loans, and recommendations to change the instructions for offers in compromise.

The U.S. Supreme Court unanimously denied a taxpayer group's challenge to nearly $300 million in tax breaks given to a DaimlerChrysler plant in Toledo, Ohio.In the 9-0 decision, Chief Justice John Roberts wrote that the municipal taxpayer group had no standing to challenge tax or spending decisions based solely on their status as taxpayers. He wrote that the argument added "yet another level of conjecture to their already hypothetical claim of injury."