Tax practice

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

Payments that a business makes are generally deductible if they are “ordinary and necessary” under Internal Revenue Service regulations unless, that is, they are specifically denied deductibility.

A House committee voted Wednesday to censure Internal Revenue Service Commissioner John Koskinen over Republican claims that he obstructed an investigation into whether his agency targeted conservative groups seeking tax-exempt status.

The cost of compliance with the ever-growing Tax Code costs U.S. taxpayers a total of 8.9 billion hours and $409 billion, according to new research.

The Internal Revenue Service has released final regulations relating to the exclusion from gross income of discharge of indebtedness income of a grantor trust or an entity that is disregarded as an entity separate from its owner.

The Internal Revenue Service has issued guidance on whether payments from a qualified retirement plan during a phased retirement are considered an annuity.

The Internal Revenue Service plans to change some of its procedures for reviewing amended tax returns after a government report estimated it may have inappropriately allowed approximately $34.4 million in tax refunds and abatements.

Microsoft Corp. has enough cash to buy LinkedIn Corp. four times over. So why is it taking out a big loan to pay for its latest purchase?

A House committee plans to vote Wednesday on whether to censure Internal Revenue Service Commissioner John Koskinen over Republican claims that he obstructed an investigation into whether his agency targeted conservative groups seeking tax-exempt status.

The House passed Republican-backed legislation Tuesday that would prevent the Internal Revenue Service from requiring tax-exempt 501(c) organizations to disclose the names of donors on Form 990.

The Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration warned Tuesday about a new twist in the IRS impersonation scam, with fraudsters pretending to be Internal Revenue Service employees demanding taxpayers send them tax payments not only on iTunes gift cards, but on other types of gift cards as well.

The Tax Court has decided in favor of Medtronic in its dispute over the transfer pricing methodology used by the IRS in valuing the contributions of the medical device maker's Puerto Rican affiliate.

The Internal Revenue Service is revising its civil asset forfeiture policies after coming under pressure from Congress for failing to return funds wrongly seized from small businesses.

The Taxpayer Advocate Service has added a new Employer Shared Responsibility Provision Estimator online tool to help a business determine its potential liability under the Affordable Care Act for the employer mandate.

Donald Trump has said his main tax-policy goal is a cut for the middle class, yet his guest list for a series of policy presentations at Trump Tower included a Reagan-era economist who has suggested revamping that plan.

The Internal Revenue Service is warning tax professionals that next year a new law will require the IRS to hold all Earned Income Tax Credit and Additional Child Tax Credit refunds until Feb. 15 as a safeguard against identity theft and tax fraud.

The American Institute of CPAs has sent a letter to the Internal Revenue Service requesting additional guidance about how existing tax principles apply to virtual currency transactions, such as those in Bitcoin.

The Internal Revenue Service has issued a revenue ruling clarifying when a real estate developer can exclude cancellation of debt income under the qualified real property business indebtedness exclusion in Section 108(a)(1)(D) of the Tax Code.

The IRS has announced the winners of its first crowdsourcing competition, the “Tax Design Challenge,” that encouraged innovative ideas for the taxpayer experience of the future.

The Internal Revenue Service did not resolve over 159,000 injured spouse cases in a timely way, resulting in the unnecessary payment of millions of dollars in interest, according to a new government report.