Tax

After a five-year effort, the American Society of Appraisers is taking credit for some of the provisions contained in the Pension Protection Act of 2006.

A case questioning the legality of a Kentucky law that exempts the interest on most municipal bonds from being taxed by the state -- when the investor is a resident of the state -- could have far-ranging effects for the $2.3 trillion municipal-bond market.

A report from the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration estimates that computer programming woes cost the country more than the $200- to $300-million range originally estimated by the Internal Revenue Service.

The lead singer of the Isley Brothers, Ronald Isley, has been sentenced to three years and a month in prison for tax evasion charges.

Pitney Bowes Inc., a manufacturer of postage meters, mailing systems and other equipment, agreed to a $1.1 billion tax settlement with the Internal Revenue Service.

A complete overhaul of the federal income tax system - one of the top legislative priorities for President George W. Bush last year - appears to have slipped off of the administration's radar screen altogether in 2006, congressional leaders charged.The latest indication that White House interest in tax reform has cooled during the past year: Top Treasury Department officials declined to testify at a recent round of Senate Finance Committee hearings to discuss the issue.

In spite of efforts by the Internal Revenue Service to improve taxpayer compliance, the rate at which taxpayers pay their taxes voluntarily and on time has ranged from roughly 81 percent to about 84 percent over the past three decades, according to Michael Brostek, the director of tax issues for the Strategic Issues Team at the Government Accountability Office.The tax gap, measured by figures from the National Research Program's audit data from 2001 to 2004, is the difference between the amounts taxpayers pay voluntarily and on time, and what they should pay under the law.

While audits of high-income taxpayers have increased, the actual impact on compliance may be limited, according to a recent report from the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration.The inspector general found that while the Internal Revenue Service has increased its audits, the bulk of those have been conducted as correspondence examinations, which limit the issues that the agency can address compared with a face-to-face examination. The TIGTA report also said that the end compliance result could also be limited, because more than half of all wealthy taxpayer assessments are not collected in a timely manner.

IRS LAUNCHES ONLINE PAYMENT AGREEMENTS: Tax professionals will help launch a new system allowing many individuals who owe delinquent federal taxes to apply online for a payment agreement, the Internal Revenue Service announced.The IRS is implementing the new Online Payment Agreement application through national partnerships with the tax professional community. The application will eliminate the need to write or call the IRS toll-free number for assistance. The goal of the program is to provide an easier way for taxpayers to voluntarily resolve tax liabilities.

There have been three fundamental, evolutionary changes in the corporate tax function over the past 20 years with respect to its mission, its alignment with corporate strategy, and its influence on organizational behavior and resource allocation.The first, in the 1980s, focused on using technology applications to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of tax preparation, with cost reduction acting as the driver for improving business processes. The second, in the 1990s, involved value creation and developing holistic approaches to sustain tax minimization, which proved that the corporate tax function could positively affect the bottom line through effective tax planning.