Ameriprise Financial Inc. will pay $1.25 million to settle an enforcement action brought by regulators over its sales of Section 529 college savings plans, the company said. Ameriprise neither admitted nor denied wrongdoing.

With the President's Advisory Panel on Federal Tax Reform due to report Nov. 1, we asked industry leaders, many who made Accounting Today's recently released 2005 Top 100 Most Influential People list, to tell us what sort of tax system they would create.

The Internal Revenue Service and the Free File Alliance have extended their partnership, a pact that provides free tax services and electronic filing to an eligible pool of 93 million taxpayers, and providing important new consumer protections.

The Treasury Department has made three new appointments to the Office of Tax Policy.Michael J. Desmond was named tax legislative counsel, Harry J. "Hal" Hicks III was named international tax counsel and Robert H. Dilworth was named senior advisor.

The Internal Revenue Service is seeking 84,290 taxpayers whose income tax refund checks could not be delivered in 2005. Checks totaling approximately $73 million can be reissued as soon as taxpayers correct or update their addresses with the IRS.In some cases, a taxpayer has more than one check waiting. The average amount owed to each taxpayer is $871.

$6.1B KATRINA RELIEF BILL HEADS TO PRESIDENT: Despite concerns over the rising deficit, both houses of Congress sent a $6.1 billion Katrina tax-relief bill to President Bush for his signature without a dissenting vote being cast.The House gave its approval on a 422-0 vote, and the Senate moved the legislation through without a roll call. At press time, the president was expected to sign it.

Internal Revenue Service Commissioner Mark W. Everson estimated that the current tax gap - the difference between taxes owed and collected - is $300 billion.That money is legitimately owed to the government and would do a lot of good ... if it could be collected.