Tax planning

The heads of the President's Advisory Panel on Federal Tax Reform announced that both of the panel's meetings scheduled for September will be postponed indefinitely.

Trustfile, a manufacturer of electronic state sales and use tax e-filing and payment technology, announced a reselling agreement with Independent Systems and Programming, a developer of sales and use tax calculation software, databases and forms.

The decision by the Internal Revenue Service to launch a new compliance study of S corporations has drawn a mixed response from tax practitioners and industry groups.

The Internal Revenue Service currently has no corporate strategy to combat identify theft, according to the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration. Until it adopts an agency-wide strategy, it will be unable to help taxpayers and the government combat what TIGTA calls "the growing threat" of identity theft and support the prosecution of offenders.

A federal judge has filed paperwork alerting the Internal Revenue Service that he plans to halt their experiment in outsourcing debt collection, siding with a Texas company that claimed they had been unfairly excluded from the bidding process.

Plans by Internal Revenue Service officials and federal lawmakers to establish new national certification and testing requirements for unlicensed tax return preparers are drawing cautious support from mainstream tax professionals.

The Energy Tax Incentives Act of 2005, passed as part of the 2005 Energy Act and signed by President Bush on Aug. 8, 2005, includes a series of new credits aimed at encouraging the purchase of various types of new alternative fuel vehicles.

With Congress preparing to reconvene in early September, Senate Majority Leader William H. Frist said a vote to fully repeal the estate tax will be tops on the to-do list.

Reports are that MCI, formerly WorldCom Inc., is close to a settlement that would pay out $315 million to 14 states and the District of Columbia in order to settle back tax claims.

The Internal Revenue Service will offer special relief to taxpayers in the disaster areas struck by Hurricane Katrina.

The 12th meeting of the President's Advisory Panel on Federal Tax Reform will be held on Sept. 15 in Washington.

Minnesota's Department of Revenue will give residents who have used abusive tax shelters until Jan. 31 to amend their tax returns without facing new penalties passed during the 2005 special legislative session.

The 11th meeting of the President's Advisory Panel on Federal Tax Reform will be held on Sept. 8 in Washington.

Specifics of a deal are being hammered out between federal prosecutors and KPMG LLP, and the name of former Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman Richard Breeden is being floated to serve as in independent monitor of the firm's future activities.

A Council On State Taxation representative told the National Conference of State Legislatures they should expect a hearing before the Senate Finance Committee this fall.

Although other states have reportedly considered the strategy, Mississippi is expected to be the first to file criminal charges against Big Four firm KPMG, in connection with benefit tax work the company performed for WorldCom.

A recent report from Government Accountability Office says that the Internal Revenue Service needs to establish a more "results-oriented approach" to reducing the tax gap -- the difference between taxes owed and taxes paid in the country.

Alvarez & Marsal Tax Advisory Services LLC has added five new managing directors to its team of senior tax professionals.

The IRS hasn't focused on S corporation audits in 21 years, and needs to update its data so that it can tweak its audit machinery to select audits more effectively. Therefore, they plan to select 5,000 S corporations for random audits under the National Research Program.

The dominant players in application service provider tax prep technology continue to consolidate their positions. But there is still room for smaller ones to enter the market.