Practice management

Senate Republicans blocked a package of more than $80 billion in tax cuts, killing for now a measure that would provide incentives for corporate research and wind energy.

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

CPA2Biz president and CEO Erik Asgeirsson talks about how accounting firms are adapting to revolutionary changes in digital technology, collaborating, and providing specialized services to clients, in an interview with Accounting Today editor-in-chief Dan Hood.

The summer months are typically the time that CPAs fall out of touch with their clients. Some may send out or email one or two newsletters, but most taxpayers and preparers have thoughts that are far from next year’s taxes.

The Internal Revenue Service has begun accepting applications once again for its Low Income Taxpayer Clinic grants.

Nearly half the tax returns on which individuals claimed tax deductions for alimony payments did not match up with their former spouse’s tax returns, showing a total “alimony gap” of over $2.3 billion in 2010, according to a new government report.

Real estate investment trusts were originally created to permit tax-efficient public investment in real estate, but REITs have also found wide use as private vehicles.

The Internal Revenue Service has published final regulations to provide guidance on which costs incurred by estates or trusts other than grantor trusts are subject to a 2 percent floor for miscellaneous itemized deductions.

The Internal Revenue Service has issued final regulations clarifying the rules regarding the tax treatment of payments by qualified retirement plans for accident or health insurance.

Republicans trying to end a U.S. excise tax on medical devices see a chance to capitalize on fractures among Democrats and score a long-sought victory.

For the first time in 15 years, cost segregation services have made Accounting Today’s list of Top Niche services for increasing business, putting engineering studies at the top of the charts in terms of important consulting services for 2014. So what’s driving this sudden attention and popularity?

Ninety percent of tax and finance executives of companies headquartered in the United States anticipate already heightened tax risks to accelerate in the next two years, compared to executives with 81 percent of companies globally who anticipate increased risk, according to a new survey by Ernst & Young.

The Internal Revenue Service allowed an estimated $13.3 billion to $15.6 billion to be paid in improper claims for the Earned Income Tax Credit last fiscal year, or about 22 to 26 percent of all EITC payments, according to a new government report, which found the IRS continuing to be noncompliant with a 2010 law that sought to limit improper payments.

The Internal Revenue Service has declined to file a petition with the Supreme Court to appeal a series of rulings invalidating its effort to require mandatory testing and continuing education of tax preparers.

The Indiana congressional delegation has sent a letter to Internal Revenue Service Commissioner John Koskinen asking for an investigation into reports that hundreds of Indiana doctors and health care professionals have been victimized by identity theft.

As the May 15 deadline approaches for tax-exempt organizations to file the Form 990, 990-EZ and 990-PF, the Internal Revenue Service is warning them not to include Social Security numbers and other personally identifiable information in their tax forms.

“Failure” is a word that has a definite negative connotation in the vocabulary of a managing partner or CEO, but in the new concept of leadership management a collaborative failure should not be observed as a bad occurrence.

A tax preparer in Rochester, N.Y., faces up to 10 years in prison and a fine of $853,766 after creating fictitious employers for clients and filing tax returns claiming the Earned Income Tax Credit on their behalf.

Almost 50 years after Oscar-winning actor Yul Brynner gave up his passport at the U.S. embassy in the Swiss capital, the number of Americans relinquishing their citizenship jumped 47 percent in the first quarter.

Xero chief technology officer Craig Walker talks about the biggest technology changes affecting accounting over the next five years, such as the cloud, in an interview with Accounting Today editor-in-chief Dan Hood.