Tax strategies

The founder of a company charged with conspiring to defraud the government was arrested this week crossing the border from Mexico to the United States near Laredo, Texas, the Department of Justice said.

Liberty Tax Service marked a milestone this week as the company officially welcomed its thousandth Liberty franchise entity. In the last two tax seasons, Liberty Tax Service has doubled the number of tax returns prepared in outlets throughout the U.S. and Canada. Less than 50 franchise companies have more than 1,000 franchisees on Entrepreneur magazine's list of top 500 franchise organizations in the world. "This year has been an exhilarating time of record growth in many areas for Liberty Tax. As we hit the mark of 1,000 franchisees in our operating system, we continue our quest and drive to be the No. 1 tax company in the industry," said John Hewitt, chief executive and founder of Liberty Tax Service. For the fourth consecutive year, Accounting Today named Hewitt one of the Top 100 Most Influential People in the tax industry. This year, Entrepreneur magazine ranked Liberty Tax Service as the ninth fastest growing franchise opportunity, one of the top 20 low-investment opportunities, and No. 28 on its overall list of best franchises. In March, Accounting Today magazine ranked Liberty among the fastest growing on its list of the Top 100 Tax & Accounting Firms.

The Internal Revenue Service has issued Notice 2004-71, providing procedures for persons required to prepare Form 1099-DIV and other information reporting with respect to dividends from foreign corporations and for individuals receiving such forms.

The American Jobs Creation Act of 2004, signed into law by President Bush last Friday, seems to have achieved its main goal of getting the European Union to lift $4 billion worth of sanctions on U.S. goods.

President Bush on Friday quietly signed the American Jobs Creation Act of 2004 into law, while flying on Air Force One to a campaign appearance in Pennsylvania.

As part of aggressive expansion plans, Fiducial, a provider of business outsourcing services to small businesses and entrepreneurs, has gained a foothold in the Midwest with the acquisition of Indianapolis-based Frontier CPA Group LLP.

The Internal Revenue Service Appeals Division has tightened the guidelines under which it will settle cases with taxpayers that participated in certain abusive transactions, the agency advised this week.

CCH Tax and Accounting made a big move into the document management business this week with the purchase of SIAN software by its parent, Wolters Kluwer Tax, Accounting & Legal, from Atlanta-based accounting firm Habif, Arogeti & Wynne.

Singer and songwriter Ronald Isley has been indicted on tax evasion charges for failing to report income that he received from performances and royalties as a member of the renowned Isley Brothers.

The Internal Revenue Service and the Virgin Islands Bureau of Internal Revenue said that they've established a new partnership to work together on common tax enforcement issues.

The Internal Revenue Service is reminding tax-exempt political organizations that filing deadlines are approaching for disclosure statements prior to the Nov. 2 election date. Information on 2004 political contributions and expenditures will be available for public inspection on the IRS Web site.Certain political organizations that are tax exempt under Section 527 of the Internal Revenue Code are required to file Form 8872, Report of Contributions and Expenditures. Organizations have the option of filing either monthly or quarterly.For quarterly filers, the third quarter report were due Oct. 15. Organizations filing monthly reports must submit their September information by Oct. 20. A pre-election report for both quarterly and monthly filers is due Oct. 21, or Oct. 18 if the report is sent by registered or certified mail.The October filings are the last reports that will be available to the public prior to the Nov. 2 election. A post-election report will be due on Dec. 2.

When President Bush signs the FSC/ETI bill, the days of small business owners and professionals such as doctors and lawyers expensing luxury SUVs are over.Writers of the 600-page measure closed a tax break that allowed business owners to save as much as $33,000 on the purchase of a $1000,000 vehicle, according to Tax Analysts.The Jobs and Growth Tax Relief Reconciliation Act of 2003 created the break by increasing from $25,000 to $100,000 the amount that small businesses can expense in the first year for buying a vehicle weighing 6,000 pounds or more.The incentive was originally written to assist farmers and contractors to invest in larger equipment, but the floodgates opened when it was discovered that luxury SUVs also qualified.The amendment reduces the SUV deduction to $25,000, while still allowing the farmers and contractors the break.

New data suggesting that income tax noncompliance is on the rise among the Internal Revenue Service's own employees is causing some hand-wringing among members of an IRS task force formed to address the problem.

Taxware, a provider of tax calculation and compliance solutions and a subsidiary of First Data Corp, has launched TaxSolver 4.2, tax return generation software with Sarbanes Oxley compliance functionality.

Thomson Tax & Accounting has acquired Gear Up Inc., a Vancouver, Wash. provider of training and continuing professional education for tax and accounting practitioners.

Both the House and the Senate have passed the American Job Creation Act of 2004 by wide margins, putting it on the path to the desk of President Bush, who, despite expressing some misgivings over the bill's voluminous special interest provisions, has indicated that he will sign it.

House and Senate negotiators agreed to a corporate tax bill that repeals the Foreign Sales Corporation-Extra Territorial Income Tax regime, and cuts taxes across a broad swath of businesses.

The Internal Revenue Service has unveiled a new tool to help tax professionals determine whether their clients are eligible for the earned income tax credit.

As expected, President Bush signed into law the Working Families Tax Relief Act of 2004 on Monday, extending a number of tax breaks for families and businesses and marking his fourth tax cut in four years.

South Carolina regulators are reportedly mulling disciplinary action against KPMG LLP over the firm's past sales of allegedly abusive tax shelters.