Tax

Many considered Dec. 31, 2013, the final date for year-end tax planning, but there are numerous planning actions that you can take in 2014 retroactive to 2013. Here’s a quick and easy guide to help you with your planning.

There are already numerous studies attempting to peg the effect of tax rates on economic activity. There will undoubtedly be more, as politicians, economists and tax experts seek the magic formula to maximize both economic activity and government revenue.

The American Institute of CPAs has updated its Total Tax Insights calculator with information from 2013 to help taxpayers gauge the impact of more than 20 different federal, state and local taxes, including a new Medicare surtax that took effect last year, on their own taxes for this year.

National Taxpayer Advocate Nina E. Olson urged the Internal Revenue Service to adopt a comprehensive Taxpayer Bill of Rights in her annual report to Congress Thursday, saying it would increase trust in the agency and, more generally, strengthen the IRS’s ability to serve taxpayers and collect tax. She also recommended allowing voluntary certification of unenrolled tax preparers if the IRS fails to win a court appeal of a ruling invalidating its testing requirements for tax preparers.

The Internal Revenue Service audited 0.96 percent of individual tax returns in fiscal 2013, declining for the second straight year and reaching the lowest rate since 2005.

Bill.com has signed an integration deal with tax filing solutions creator TechAtlantis and its Tax1099.com product to automate the process of creating and e-filing 1099-MISC forms.

Lyle Benson, founder of L.K. Benson & Co. and chairman of the AICPA's PFP Section, discusses how some of the tax changes in the past year could affect a client's financial planning this year, in an interview with Accounting Today editor-in-chief Daniel Hood.

The tax and business advisory firm WTP Advisors is predicting that Congress will renew the expired Research and Experimentation Tax Credit as it has traditionally done over the years.

CCH has published a new tax briefing outlining some of the significant tax changes of the past year.

Thomson Reuters has debuted Quickfinder Tax & Financial Tools, a set of calculators, worksheets and financial tools for tax and accounting practitioners.