Practice management

Wealthy people have lots of ways to avoid the estate tax. But a federal judge says one family got a little too creative in dodging its tax bill.

A tax strategy once used by the hedge fund Renaissance Technologies is attracting a new level of scrutiny from the IRS.

A scammer who organized a scheme in which taxpayers were threatened with calls purporting to come from the Internal Revenue Service and the FBI demanding payment has been sentenced to 14 years in prison.

The Internal Revenue Service’s Whistleblower Office received more claims last fiscal year than in any prior year as the program has begun paying out larger awards to tipsters with information on tax evaders.

The Senate Finance Committee released a series of reports Wednesday from five bipartisan tax working groups working on various aspects of tax reform.

Step aside, Doctors Without Borders. A new class of professionals is ignoring national frontiers to come to the aid of economically struggling nations.

A group of lawmakers has introduced legislation to roll back guidance from the Treasury Department that prohibits employers from using stand-alone health reimbursement arrangements to reimburse employees for health care-related expenses.

A Bulgarian hacker has admitted to participating in a $6 million fraudulent tax return scheme in which he used tax-filing information stolen from at least four major CPA firms in the U.S.

The New Jersey Tax Court denied Morristown Medical Center a property tax exemption because it did not operate like a non-profit.

Arkansas taxpayers who were victims of severe storms, tornadoes, straight-line winds and flooding that began two months ago may qualify for tax relief from the IRS.

The Obama administration quietly handed a victory to U.S. companies that avoid taxes by claiming a foreign address, suggesting that virtually all of them are still eligible for government contracts.

Some of our favorite recent tax fraud cases.

Highlights of some of our favorite tax-related blogs from the past week.

The Justice Department said Friday that British Petroleum has agreed to pay a record-breaking $18.7 billion settlement to resolve claims related to the Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico in 2010, but advocacy groups are warning that the settlement is largely tax deductible for BP.

The Federal Trade Commission says that 2014 marked the fifth consecutive year that tax-related identity theft was the most common form of reported identity theft.

Is turning out the lights an option?

Are loan preparation services an option for your practice?

In the wake of high-profile data breaches at the Internal Revenue Service and other federal agencies, a new government report warns the IRS against expanding its online customer service options before completing key technology upgrades.

Small business groups are sounding a warning about an obscure Internal Revenue Service rule that takes effect Wednesday imposing heavy fines on small businesses for helping defray the cost of their workers’ insurance or medical expenses.

Check out the digital edition of the July 2015 issue of Accounting Today.