Tax
Tax News & IRS Insights for Accounting Professionals
Accounting Today delivers news and analysis for accounting and tax professionals on federal and state tax developments, IRS guidance,information reporting, and operational implications for practices and clients. Our coverage focuses on legislative and procedural shifts that tax practitioners must monitor in planning, compliance, and advisory contexts.
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When every dollar counts a bit more dearly, a greater number of taxpayers are taking a closer look at ways to improve cash flow. Increasing (or at least accelerating) tax refunds for past years while lowering estimated tax and withholding payments for this year are two areas of growing interest.On the refund side of the ledger, a variety of elections and decisions still to be made on 2008 returns can affect the size of a refund, either of 2008 tax payments or of prior years' under loss-carryback rules. Accelerating refunds, whether or not they are already set in stone, also can improve a taxpayer's immediate cash flow.
February 23 -
The Internal Revenue Service has published new tax-withholding tables as a result of the economic stimulus bill that should give most workers a bigger paycheck this spring.
February 23 -
President Barack Obama is expected to release his budget proposal this week, and he reportedly plans to include tax increases to close the deficit.
February 23 -
Many of the Internal Revenue Service’s plans to protect its employees and provide service to taxpayers during and after a major disruption are not up to date, have not been adequately tested and do not contain sufficient detail to be effective, warned a government watchdog.
February 23 -
If you took an early distribution from your retirement plan, here are the top 10 things you need to know, according to the Internal Revenue Service:
February 23 -
National Taxpayer Advocate Nina E. Olson urged Congress to simplify the U.S. Tax Code and recommended measures to reduce the burden on taxpayers who are struggling to pay their bills.In the first of this year's two required reports to Congress, she designated the complexity of the Tax Code as the most serious problem facing taxpayers. According to data compiled by her office, U.S. taxpayers and businesses spend about 7.6 billion hours a year complying with tax-filing requirements. "If tax compliance were an industry, it would be one of the largest in the United States," she said in her report. "To consume 7.6 billion hours, the tax industry requires the equivalent of 3.8 million full-time workers."
February 23 -
GUIDANCE ISSUED ON TAX STATSWashington, D.C. - The Internal Revenue Service has issued interim guidance on the ability of a tax return preparer to use statistical compilations of anonymous tax return information to support their business.
February 23