Tax practice

The surge in projected government spending, coupled with diminishing sources of revenue, raises the probability that lawmakers may look toward a value-added tax to close the gap.

The House has approved a comprehensive financial reform bill, albeit with a number of key provisions weakened in recent days.

The past year saw a number of unusual sales and use tax laws enacted in a number of states.

Los Angeles attorney Matthew G. Krane has pleaded guilty to passport fraud and tax evasion after failing to report more than $35 million in income hidden overseas.

The prospect of the enactment of a value-added tax in the United States is getting closer – five years and counting, according to a Tax Governance Institute survey.

The House approved the Tax Extenders Act of 2009, with extensions of a number of tax breaks that are scheduled to expire at the end of the year, including the R&D credit.

President Obama described a series of proposals aimed at encouraging companies to add more jobs, including tax cuts for small businesses.

Large corporations have dominated the use of the research tax credit, with 549 corporations with receipts of $1 billion or more claiming over half of the $6 billion of net credits in 2005, the most recent year available, according to a new study by the Government Accountability Office.

The Internal Revenue Service has appointed Victor Song as the new chief of its Criminal Investigation division, replacing Eileen Mayer, who is retiring next month.

The Internal Revenue Service has issued a new tax guide to help taxpayers and tax preparers get the most out of new recovery tax breaks and get a jump on preparing 2009 income tax returns.

Fifty-seven percent of the senior business executives surveyed by KPMG’s Tax Governance Institute expect some type of value-added tax to be introduced in the U.S. within five years, and 18 percent anticipate a VAT within 10 years.

A group of Democratic lawmakers has introduced legislation that would impose a tax on Wall Street securities transactions.

The White House convened a jobs summit in which President Obama heard from business and union leaders about various proposals for reducing unemployment, including tax incentives for job creation.

The Internal Revenue Service has issued its 2010 optional standard mileage rates for calculating the deductible costs of operating an automobile for business, charitable, medical or moving purposes.

The Justice Department has filed papers seeking a federal court order to authorize the IRS to serve a “John Doe summons” on Ralph Janvey, the court-appointed receiver of accused fraudster R. Allen Stanford’s investment companies, in an effort to identify Stanford’s clients.

The House Financial Services Committee has approved legislation aimed at preventing the failure of large financial institutions from turning into a systemwide crisis.

Businesses will have to act soon on a bevy of tax breaks before they expire at the end of the year.

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The Internal Revenue Service has extended for another two years the Attributed Tip Income Program, which makes it easier for workers in the food and beverage industry to report the money they earn from tips.

A federal judge in San Francisco has signed a permanent injunction order barring the developer of a complex tax scheme involving numerous entities located around the globe and sales of over $1.25 billion in securities from promoting the scheme.