Tax practice

The Internal Revenue Service announced the selection Tuesday of several senior leaders to assist newly appointed Acting Commissioner Danny Werfel.

Acting Internal Revenue Service Commissioner Danny Werfel told lawmakers he is working to restore trust in the beleaguered U.S. tax agency and said he wants to make improvements before pressing for a bigger budget.

The Tax Court sided with a taxpayer after the IRS Appeals Office sustained the filing of a notice of federal tax lien against the property of the taxpayer, Antonio Lepore, to collect assessed trust fund recovery penalties for unpaid unemployment taxes. Lepore argued that the Appeals Office erred because it did not permit him to contest his liability for the trust fund recovery penalties on which the assessments were based. A person who has received a Letter 1153 from the IRS has already had an opportunity to contest trust fund recovery penalties, and is barred from contesting the liabilities before the Appeals Office in the context of its determination to sustain the filing of a notice of federal tax lien.

The Securities and Exchange Commission has suspended trading in 61 microcap shell companies in an effort to prevent stock fraud, in the second largest trading suspension in the history of the SEC.

The chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, Darrell Issa, R-Calif., revealed new testimony from IRS employees in Cincinnati who were purportedly involved with the IRS’s screening of Tea Party groups and conservative organizations applying for tax-exempt status.

The principles behind the passive-activity loss limitations rules under Code Sec. 469 and the net investment income Medicare tax under Code Sec. 1411 are similar -- limit business losses from passive activities or raise the tax on passive-type income a bit more, when not the direct result (at least not a significant part) of a taxpayer's labor. Congress, however, did not leave it at that -- or, as some would argue, leave well enough alone.

A roundup of tax news from the previous month

As they continue to seek new sources of revenue to deal with tight budgets, states are looking to expand their nexus with taxable activities, according to a recent comprehensive survey.

On the heels of the release of the embarrassing Star Trek and Gilligan’s Island spoof video, and in the midst of a major scandal, a new Internal Revenue Service video has been released: a music dance video featuring some of the same employees who performed in the now-infamous Star Trek video.

The Internal Revenue Service has modified its “first time abate” policy, which provides a one-time consideration of penalty relief, based on the taxpayer’s compliance history, for taxpayers who have been subjected to a first-time penalty charge.

H&R Block has introduced a remote service for U.S. citizens living abroad that will help them meet their often confusing tax-filing obligations.

If the number of congressional hearings on tax reform this year is an indication of the potential for passage, it seems possible that something may actually be in the works.

The Internal Revenue Service does not have enough data to identify who claims a tax expenditure and how much they claim, for nearly half the dollar value of all tax expenditures, or $492 billion out of $1 trillion, according to a new report by the Government Accountability Office.

The enhancements that the Internal Revenue Service is making to its Modenized e-File computer system promise to improve the system’s reliability and reduce delays in processing tax returns next filing season, according to a new report.

An advocacy group has filed a lawsuit in a Washington, D.C., federal court on behalf of 25 Tea Party and conservative organizations against the Internal Revenue Service and top IRS officials, in addition to the U.S. Attorney General and Treasury Secretary, and Internal Revenue Service, arguing that the Obama administration overstepped its authority in subjecting applications for tax-exempt status from Tea Party groups to extra scrutiny.

A new report from the Congressional Budget Office found that the top 10 tax expenditures are distributed unevenly across the income scale, with much of the benefit going to the top-earning 1 percent of the population.

With the start of this year’s hurricane season, the Internal Revenue Service is encouraging individuals and businesses to protect themselves in the event of a natural disaster by taking a few simple steps.

The Internal Revenue Service needs to take more aggressive action to address the fraudulent misuse of individually billed travel cards, according to a new report.

Switzerland proposed a bill that it says will provide the legal basis for the country’s banks, including Credit Suisse Group AG and Julius Baer Group Ltd., to resolve a tax-evasion dispute with the U.S.

The Internal Revenue Service has appointed David Fisher, chief financial officer of the Government Accountability Office, as a senior executive to help the tax agency recover from the controversy over its scrutiny of small-government groups.