Tax practice

A bipartisan majority of the House of Representatives comprising 233 members have signed a letter urging the House leadership to preserve the cash method of accounting for tax purposes, writing that proposals requiring a transition to the accrual method “will have a severely detrimental impact on thousands of businesses in our districts.”

Rep. Mark Pocan, D-Wis., has introduced three pieces of legislation to close tax breaks that enable U.S. multinational corporations to use so-called “inversions” in which they merge with a foreign company and move their tax domicile abroad to a low-tax country to reduce corporate taxes.

Bloomberg BNA has enhanced its Premier International Tax Library with expanded content and new tools from tax practitioners in different countries.

Internal Revenue Service commissioner John Koskinen told a congressional subcommittee about the IRS’s progress on the Affordable Care Act and the impact that tax subsidies will have next tax season.

The Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals has affirmed a Tax Court decision disallowing deductions related to a farmhouse.

The Internal Revenue Service’s Office of Professional Responsibility has released guidance under Circular 230 regarding power of attorney for tax practitioners who are employed by large corporations.

Master limited partnerships, tax-exempt companies that pay investors most of their income at the cost of added risk, are spreading in the shipping industry.

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

The Internal Revenue Service said Wednesday that more than 1 million tax payments have been processed so far this year through its new IRS Direct Pay system.

The Obama administration can make tax inversions less economically attractive to U.S. corporations and deter companies from changing their addresses, Treasury Secretary Jacob J. Lew said.

The owner of a Michigan human resource management firm was charged with filing false tax returns on behalf of his business clients.

The House has passed legislation that would toughen the penalties for criminals who engage in identity theft through stolen tax returns.

A pair of CPAs have filed a class-action complaint against the Internal Revenue Service challenging IRS regulations requiring tax practitioners to annually register and pay a fee to the agency to obtain and maintain a Preparer Tax Identification Number.

A singer known as Remy has written a tongue-in-cheek love song revolving around the Internal Revenue Service’s recent scandals involving its loss of emails from Lois Lerner, the former director of the IRS’s Exempt Organizations unit.

The Internal Revenue Service is offering a free online program to help teachers, students and others who may be interested learn the “hows” and “whys” of taxes.

A proposal from a top Senate Democrat could limit deductions for companies that moved their tax addresses out of the U.S. as long ago as 1994, according to a draft obtained by Bloomberg News.

Thomson Reuters has published a new white paper with advice on how tax professionals can be better tax researchers.

An inspector general who disclosed the Internal Revenue Service’s extra scrutiny of Tea Party groups ignored the tax agency’s similar focus on groups backing Democrats, according to a report released today by Senate Democrats.

H&R Block president and CEO Bill Cobb is expecting problems next tax season due to the Affordable Care Act, now that the Internal Revenue Service has released some of the draft forms that will be needed, and pointed out that many taxpayers will no longer be able to file a simple Form 1040EZ.

Some of our favorite recent tax fraud cases.