Tax season

H&R Block has teamed up with the mobile personal finance service Pageonce to provide a tool that allows do-it-yourself filers to track the status of their tax refunds from a mobile device.

Nearly 19 million tax returns have been filed with the Internal Revenue Service from home computers so far this year, an increase of almost 6 percent compared to the number of returns from the same time last year, the IRS said Friday.

Halfpricesoft.com has added data import and upload features to the new edition of ezW2, its software for filing W2 and 1099 forms.

H&R Block said Thursday that the IRS’s inability to accept certain tax return filings prior to Feb. 14 led to changes in taxpayer filing patterns this year, with a delayed start to tax season, and declines in the number of tax returns prepared through Jan. 31.

Intuit reported growth in its quarterly revenue for its second fiscal quarter ending January 31, but noted that the Internal Revenue Service’s late acceptance of itemized returns this tax season would push more of its revenue into the next quarter.

IMGCAP(1)]The Minnesota Society of CPAs has released its list of the most outrageous tax deductions proposed by clients.

Intuit has added Wells Fargo Advisors to its list of financial institutions included in ProLine Tax Import, which allows tax professionals to securely download their clients’ data directly into their tax returns within Lacerte and ProSeries.

Before 2007, any part of a mortgage forgiven after a foreclosure, such as when the house was sold and the bank forgave a mortgage exceeding the home’s sale price, was considered taxable income, but that has changed now.

With the tax deadline quickly approaching, businesses are reviewing their bookkeeping to find possible deductions, including some valuable ways to write off expenses.

The Internal Revenue Service has requested that private sector transmitters of e-filed returns stagger their submission of returns over the course of this week, according to one industry group.

The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. has told Republic Bancorp, the main refund anticipation loan provider for Jackson Hewitt and Liberty Tax Service, that the bank’s RALs are “unsafe and unsound” without a debt indicator from the Internal Revenue Service.

Check out the digital edition of the February issue of Accounting Today.

The Justice Department has filed six lawsuits in five states to stop tax return preparers from fraudulently claiming the First-Time Homebuyer Tax Credit and the Earned Income Tax Credit.

The Internal Revenue Service plans to begin accepting tax returns with itemized deductions and other delayed forms after 11:00 am next Monday.

There are many important new tax breaks for U.S. individuals on the 2010 Form 1040, and several more have been eliminated, noted one tax expert.

The American Institute of CPAs is providing a checklist developed by leading CPA financial planners to help accountants identify financial planning opportunities during tax season.

The Internal Revenue Service warned small businesses and their tax preparers Wednesday that a group of tax return forms should not be filed until it is ready to start processing them.

With many indications showing that the Internal Revenue Service is behind in the number of tax returns filed so far this year compared to last year, Liberty Tax Service reported positive growth Wednesday in revenue, same-store sales and tax returns filed.

While the late December tax cut extension slowed down the beginning of tax season for some, it brought a welcome degree of certainty to the tax landscape.

Jackson Hewitt Tax Service filed a lawsuit Monday against H&R Block claiming that Block is disseminating “false, misleading and highly disparaging advertising claims about Jackson Hewitt.”