Tax practice

The Internal Revenue Service started 1,492 criminal investigations into the use of tax returns to commit identity theft in the year that ended Sept. 30, a 66 percent increase, the agency said Tuesday.

The Internal Revenue Service audited 0.96 percent of individual tax returns in fiscal 2013, declining for the second straight year and reaching the lowest rate since 2005.

The Internal Revenue Service has released draft instructions for Form 8960, the Net Investment Income Tax that was mandated as part of the Affordable Care Act.

Senators Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., and Tom Coburn, R-Okla., have introduced bipartisan legislation to increase transparency around settlements reached by federal enforcement agencies, including disclosures of any tax deductions and tax credits.

The Affordable Care Act has opened up a host of questions for the taxpaying public, ramping up the usual levels of pre-tax season taxpayer confusion.

The tax and business advisory firm WTP Advisors is predicting that Congress will renew the expired Research and Experimentation Tax Credit as it has traditionally done over the years.

The Senate has confirmed Janet Yellen as chairman of the Federal Reserve by a vote of 56 to 26, succeeding Ben Bernanke, whose term ends on Jan. 31.

The newly approved commissioner of the Internal Revenue Service, John Koskinen, said Monday that he would support voluntary certification for tax preparers if the Internal Revenue Service fails to win an appeal of a judge’s decision striking down the IRS’s Registered Tax Return Preparer regulatory regime.

CCH has published a new tax briefing outlining some of the significant tax changes of the past year.

Thomson Reuters has debuted Quickfinder Tax & Financial Tools, a set of calculators, worksheets and financial tools for tax and accounting practitioners.

Deutsche Bank AG, BDO Seidman LLP and an ex-BDO Seidman partner were sued over claims they designed a fraudulent tax shelter that caused losses for a former chief operating officer of a Fortune 100 software company.

Democrats in Congress plan to renew their efforts next week to extend the Emergency Unemployment Compensation program that expired on December 28.

The Internal Revenue Service has returned to offering videos to help taxpayers cope with tax season, while avoiding the spoofs of old TV series like Star Trek and Gilligan’s Island that landed IRS officials in hot water last year.

The airline industry and one of its prominent allies are gearing up to fight a possible push in the U.S. Congress to tax baggage fees and other air-travel charges as a way to generate additional federal revenue.

H. Ty Warner, the billionaire creator of Beanie Baby plush toys, asked a judge to give him probation, not prison, for evading taxes on secret Swiss accounts that held as much as $107 million.

An additional tax of 10 percent is charged on premature withdrawals from a qualified retirement plan, SIMPLE plan or IRA. The additional tax is 10 percent of amounts withdrawn that are includible in gross income. The rules and exceptions are intricate enough that they don’t need to be complicated by things like fraudulent withdrawals by a soon-to-be former spouse. But that’s what happened to Andrew Roberts, whose wife withdrew funds from his IRAs without his knowledge.

The Internal Revenue Service has issued a revenue procedure providing a safe harbor to those who invest in renovations of historic commercial buildings, addressing concerns stemming from a 2012 appeals court decision that upset users of historic tax credits, or rehabilitation credits.

The Internal Revenue Service is giving organizations that have had their tax exemptions revoked because they failed to file a tax return a way to revive their tax-exempt status.

A recent ruling by the U.S. Tax Court holds a costly reminder about the consequences of making inappropriate transactions within a client’s IRA.

The owner of a New Jersey tax preparation service was sentenced to 18 months in prison for willfully preparing false tax returns for his clients.