Tax practice

Even though tax season for individual tax returns has been delayed until January 31, the Internal Revenue Service and the Free File Alliance are opening up free electronic filing for taxpayers with adjusted gross incomes of $58,000 or less.

American Citizens Abroad, a group representing U.S. expatriates, has submitted a tax proposal to the Senate Finance Committee recommending a number of international tax reforms, with the American Institute of CPAs also submitting its recommendations to the same committee on tax administration and simplification.

A federal court has ruled that U.S. banks must report to foreign governments on the holdings of nonresident alien account holders under the intergovernmental agreements that the Treasury Department has signed with other countries’ tax authorities in an effort to implement the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act.

Payroll giant ADP is offering a new Protective Claims Service for employers to preserve their right to a refund of FICA taxes they remitted for certain types of severance pay, pending a final decision in a case that the Supreme Court heard this week.

A federal district court judge has ruled in favor of the federal government in a lawsuit that claimed the Internal Revenue Service did not have the authority under the Affordable Care Act to write rules providing tax credits to individuals purchasing health insurance on the health insurance exchange set up by the federal government.

A task force that has been investigating the budget crisis affecting many states across the country is calling for major changes in the ways that states handle their budgeting and financial reporting.

H. Ty Warner, the billionaire creator of Beanie Babies plush toys, avoided a prison sentence for hiding income from U.S. tax collectors in a Swiss bank account.

The former secretary to Imelda Marcos, the one-time First Lady of the Philippines, has been sentenced to serve between two and six years in prison for tax evasion and ordered to pay the State of New York $3.5 million in taxes after she was accused of stealing and illegally selling a painting by the French Impressionist master Claude Monet for $28 million.

A New York City tax preparer has been convicted of stealing tax refunds using stolen identities and adding false dependents to his clients’ tax returns.

Senator Marco Rubio, R-Fla., plans to introduce legislation that would provide a replacement for the Earned Income Tax Credit in the form of a “wage enhancement.”

The head of the union representing Internal Revenue Service employees is warning about persistent underfunding of the Internal Revenue Service in the omnibus spending bill unveiled yesterday by congressional negotiators.

As the holidays recede in the rear-view mirror, many CPAs begin to observe a worrisome trend. The stack of paperwork on the corner of the desk, the number of emails in the inbox, and the items on the to-do list begin to expand as if by magic. It is a sign that the busy season is upon us, yet again.

The United States is falling behind Europe and China in efforts to capitalize on globalization and could potentially miss out on future economic growth as a result, according to a new survey by the international accounting and consulting network UHY.

The Internal Revenue Service should give taxpayers clear rules on how it will handle transactions involving Bitcoin and other digital currencies, Nina Olson, the National Taxpayer Advocate, said.

The Internal Revenue Service is changing some of the forms and procedures that organizations can use to apply for tax-exempt status as it seeks to emerge from a high-profile scandal last year over how it handled applications from political groups.

Many considered Dec. 31, 2013, the final date for year-end tax planning, but there are numerous planning actions that you can take in 2014 retroactive to 2013. Here’s a quick and easy guide to help you with your planning.

There are already numerous studies attempting to peg the effect of tax rates on economic activity. There will undoubtedly be more, as politicians, economists and tax experts seek the magic formula to maximize both economic activity and government revenue.

The American Institute of CPAs has updated its Total Tax Insights calculator with information from 2013 to help taxpayers gauge the impact of more than 20 different federal, state and local taxes, including a new Medicare surtax that took effect last year, on their own taxes for this year.

National Taxpayer Advocate Nina E. Olson urged the Internal Revenue Service to adopt a comprehensive Taxpayer Bill of Rights in her annual report to Congress Thursday, saying it would increase trust in the agency and, more generally, strengthen the IRS’s ability to serve taxpayers and collect tax. She also recommended allowing voluntary certification of unenrolled tax preparers if the IRS fails to win a court appeal of a ruling invalidating its testing requirements for tax preparers.

H. Ty Warner, the billionaire creator of Beanie Babies plush toys, should go to prison for tax evasion, U.S. prosecutors told a federal judge.