Tax planning

A real estate investor from Brooklyn, N.Y., had the requisite skillz to win the $25,000 TaxRap contest sponsored by TurboTax.In a statement, the company said that the submission from Christian Pulfer, 28, stood out as one of the most individual and creative entries. Pulfer’s entry, “It’s Just a Breeze…G,” was selected by guest judge Vanilla Ice from more than 370 homemade rap videos.

The White House released copies of the tax returns for both the Bushes and the Cheneys late last week.

Late last week, the Internal Revenue Service learned of a new tax scam on the Internet that lures taxpayers into filing tax information on a site masquerading as a member of the Free File Alliance.The IRS reminded taxpayers the only place to access the Free File program is through the official IRS Web site, at www.IRS.gov.

Strategies for the use of tax-deferred like-kind exchanges have grown over the years from almost exclusively a real estate concern to one in which billions of dollars of business tangible personal property are traded each year. While the main battle continues to be waged over what dissimilarities in property are allowed and still qualify as "like kind," another fight has developed over how the property received in a like-kind exchange is to be depreciated.After tinkering with the depreciation rules in 2001 and 2004, the Treasury issued final regulations early in 2007. In its preamble to the final regs, the Treasury admitted that confusion and resulting inconsistency among taxpayers had developed. The final regs appear to do little to end those problems.

The Government Accountability Office said that the Internal Revenue Service doesn’t appear to be in a position to develop its own software for tax preparation anytime soon.As part of its partnership with the Free File Alliance, in exchange for a number of tax prep providers agreeing to provider their software free of charge to certain taxpayers, the IRS has agreed not to develop its own software. But because increased electronic filing would reduce the agency’s processing costs, reduce transcription errors and speed up refund turnaround, the GAO was looked to examine the benefits and costs of the agency creating its own online tax prep offering.

Internal Revenue Service agents are spending more time conducting face-to-face corporate audits that produce no revenue, according to a report released by the tax division of Syracuse University’s Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse.

In an annual ritual, many small businesses rush out after tax season to take their accountant's advice on the tax benefits of incorporation, and business software and services company Intuit has relaunched its online incorporation and document-filing services site to coincide with the rush.

Like their GOP predecessors, the Democrats in charge of Congressional tax committees continue to wring their hands over the fiscal train wreck looming due to the escalating alternative minimum tax.But agreement on a way to stop that runaway AMT locomotive - a step that many tax accountants say is needed to head off a tax revolt by millions of middle-income American families - seems just as elusive as ever.

New Jersey is working to join a roster of U.S. states that are offering tax breaks to local military personnel, as a state legislator has authored a bill that would exempt income earned by military personnel stationed outside the state for at least six months from the state's gross income tax."I think there's no question that our men and women who are serving in the military are sacrificing a tremendous amount already," said New Jersey Assemblyman Michael Panter, author of the bill. "To tax them from a state perspective, when they're not in New Jersey taking advantage of the state services and infrastructure, really it's a windfall to the state, and I think it's incredibly unfair."

A combination of both strong economic growth and low unemployment helped keep state tax rates flat for 2006. Nevertheless, some states are continuing to mine tax-related revenue streams."Currently, there are several states that are looking to improve their tax structure," explained Curtis Dubay, an economist at the Tax Foundation.

I just came back from a cruise that included a stop at George Town, Grand Cayman. Many people on the ship joked that this was an intended, featured port of call as they wanted to check up on their shekels in the island’s banks. Let me sort this out for you.

A grand jury indicted the founder of the “Girls Gone Wild” video series on charges of deducting more than $20 million in false business expenses on the 2002 and 2003 corporate income tax returns of his California-based Mantra Films Inc. and Nevada-based Sands Media Inc.Joe Francis, 34, is accused of an elaborate tax evasion scheme which involved the transfer of more than $15 million from a bank account in Bermuda to a Morgan Stanley brokerage account in Irvine, Calif. The account was held in the name of a Cayman Islands corporation that Francis allegedly controlled.

The American Enterprise Institute has released a new public opinion study that focuses on Americans’ historical attitudes to taxes.The study, “Public Opinion on Taxes,” was compiled by senior fellow Karlyn Bowman, who used available polling data to examine how attitudes toward paying taxes have changed over the past half century.

The Internal Revenue Service is reminding taxpayers to file their tax returns by the April 17 deadline and to pay as much as they can of any taxes they owe to minimize any accrued penalties and interest.

The Internal Revenue Service has submitted its Taxpayer Assistance Blueprint to Congress, as part of its response to Capitol Hill’s demand for the development of a five-year plan to improve the delivery of taxpayer service. The blueprint contains the joint response of the IRS, the IRS Oversight Board and the National Taxpayer Advocate. The groups all said that the document represents the most extensive IRS research ever conducted into the needs, preferences and behaviors of taxpayers and partners who assist them in complying with the tax laws, such as volunteer and paid tax return preparers.

After its financing partners decided that they would be leaving the line of business, Jackson Hewitt Tax Service Inc. announced that it will stop offering "pre-season" refund anticipation loans.Unlike other tax-refund anticipation loans that are made after a taxpayer has filed their return, the pre-season loans were made to people before they filed, based on their pay stubs. In January, Jackson Hewitt paid $5 million to settle charges brought by California Attorney General Bill Lockyer, who was joined by consumer advocates in alleging that the high-interest loans were used to take advantage of low-income consumers.

A former manager for the Grateful Dead has been sentenced to five years in federal prison for tax evasion.Ronald Leon Rakow, 69, was ordered to begin his prison term in June for evading payment of $2.2 million in taxes owed to the Internal Revenue Service, the U.S. attorney's office said.

The Internal Revenue Service announced that more than 1 million business taxpayers have electronically filed tax returns so far this year.

The Internal Revenue Service has begun to urge taxpayers who need additional time to complete their tax return to submit their request for an automatic extension electronically by April 17.

For the procrastinators among us -- well, for those of us who don’t prepare taxes for a living, of course -- the concerns of tax season probably didn’t take hold until recently.