Tax practice for CPAs is changing. Recent modifications to Circular 230, the U.S. Treasury Department regulations that govern practice before the Internal Revenue Service, have established several changes that leave CPAs with a new standard for the practice of taxation.The rationale for the revised regulations is part of an IRS effort to promote ethical tax practices and curb abusive tax avoidance programs promoted by some tax professionals. Some CPA and law firms were coming up with tax-motivated transactions for clients and then packaging those transactions to sell to other companies.

Advanced degrees are being obtained by a higher percentage of the middle- and upper-class population than ever before. Many of these students hold full-time jobs. The recent development of online universities has only served to fuel this trend. The ability of working students to take a business expense deduction for tuition expenses likewise has grown in importance.With MBAs being one of the hot degrees to have as of late, because of its apparent ticket to success in many different business settings, it's a small wonder that a recent Tax Court decision has attracted more than its share of attention. That case (Allemeier Jr., T.C. Memo. 2005-207) appears to have opened up the possibility that the expense for obtaining a larger number of MBA degrees can be written off as a trade or business expense.

A member of the President's Advisory Panel on Federal Tax Reform has been complaining loudly about the requirement that the panel always meet in public to discuss its plan, according to reports.

The recently passed Treasury appropriations bill for next year sets a budget of $10.7 billion for the Internal Revenue Service, with most of the agency's $434 million increase tabbed for enforcement efforts.

In one of the stiffest jail sentences handed down in a tax case, Dallas' Daniel A. Fisher was sentenced to serve 235 months and pay a $1 million fine.

As the Senate approved a measure with $60 billion in tax cuts, the House will consider its own measure containing $56.6 billion in cuts. Both plans are spread over the next five years.

Although President Bush's tax reform advisory group recommended against shifting the U.S. to a European-style value added tax or a national sales tax system, congressional advocates of consumption taxes haven't given up the fight.