Tax planning

As part of aggressive expansion plans, Fiducial, a provider of business outsourcing services to small businesses and entrepreneurs, has gained a foothold in the Midwest with the acquisition of Indianapolis-based Frontier CPA Group LLP.

The Internal Revenue Service Appeals Division has tightened the guidelines under which it will settle cases with taxpayers that participated in certain abusive transactions, the agency advised this week.

CCH Tax and Accounting made a big move into the document management business this week with the purchase of SIAN software by its parent, Wolters Kluwer Tax, Accounting & Legal, from Atlanta-based accounting firm Habif, Arogeti & Wynne.

Singer and songwriter Ronald Isley has been indicted on tax evasion charges for failing to report income that he received from performances and royalties as a member of the renowned Isley Brothers.

The Internal Revenue Service and the Virgin Islands Bureau of Internal Revenue said that they've established a new partnership to work together on common tax enforcement issues.

The Internal Revenue Service is reminding tax-exempt political organizations that filing deadlines are approaching for disclosure statements prior to the Nov. 2 election date. Information on 2004 political contributions and expenditures will be available for public inspection on the IRS Web site.Certain political organizations that are tax exempt under Section 527 of the Internal Revenue Code are required to file Form 8872, Report of Contributions and Expenditures. Organizations have the option of filing either monthly or quarterly.For quarterly filers, the third quarter report were due Oct. 15. Organizations filing monthly reports must submit their September information by Oct. 20. A pre-election report for both quarterly and monthly filers is due Oct. 21, or Oct. 18 if the report is sent by registered or certified mail.The October filings are the last reports that will be available to the public prior to the Nov. 2 election. A post-election report will be due on Dec. 2.

When President Bush signs the FSC/ETI bill, the days of small business owners and professionals such as doctors and lawyers expensing luxury SUVs are over.Writers of the 600-page measure closed a tax break that allowed business owners to save as much as $33,000 on the purchase of a $1000,000 vehicle, according to Tax Analysts.The Jobs and Growth Tax Relief Reconciliation Act of 2003 created the break by increasing from $25,000 to $100,000 the amount that small businesses can expense in the first year for buying a vehicle weighing 6,000 pounds or more.The incentive was originally written to assist farmers and contractors to invest in larger equipment, but the floodgates opened when it was discovered that luxury SUVs also qualified.The amendment reduces the SUV deduction to $25,000, while still allowing the farmers and contractors the break.

New data suggesting that income tax noncompliance is on the rise among the Internal Revenue Service's own employees is causing some hand-wringing among members of an IRS task force formed to address the problem.

Taxware, a provider of tax calculation and compliance solutions and a subsidiary of First Data Corp, has launched TaxSolver 4.2, tax return generation software with Sarbanes Oxley compliance functionality.

Thomson Tax & Accounting has acquired Gear Up Inc., a Vancouver, Wash. provider of training and continuing professional education for tax and accounting practitioners.

Both the House and the Senate have passed the American Job Creation Act of 2004 by wide margins, putting it on the path to the desk of President Bush, who, despite expressing some misgivings over the bill's voluminous special interest provisions, has indicated that he will sign it.

House and Senate negotiators agreed to a corporate tax bill that repeals the Foreign Sales Corporation-Extra Territorial Income Tax regime, and cuts taxes across a broad swath of businesses.

The Internal Revenue Service has unveiled a new tool to help tax professionals determine whether their clients are eligible for the earned income tax credit.

As expected, President Bush signed into law the Working Families Tax Relief Act of 2004 on Monday, extending a number of tax breaks for families and businesses and marking his fourth tax cut in four years.

South Carolina regulators are reportedly mulling disciplinary action against KPMG LLP over the firm's past sales of allegedly abusive tax shelters.

A new revenue ruling will shut down an abusive employment tax arrangement involving double employer reimbursements for an employee's parking expenses.

RIA has introduced two new modules for its InSource Sales & Use Tax software.

Intuit unveiled a new offering this week aimed at small business owners who still rely on pencil and paper, Excel spreadsheets or shoeboxes to track expenses and keep their business records.

Almost half of fast-growth chief executives surveyed expect a major increase in their company's business taxes over the next two years, according to PricewaterhouseCoopers.

Republican and Democratic lawmakers in a conference this week agreed to extend $145 billion worth of President Bush's tax cuts.