Tax planning

Government and software industry officials proclaimed this year's filing season a success, with numbers up in nearly every category.

H&R Block Inc. hopes that it will be able to put at least one refund anticipation loan lawsuit in its past.

The Internal Revenue Service said that the roughly 400 taxpayers who mailed their returns late because of incorrect information in Cleveland's major newspaper will not be penalized by the federal government.

Taxpayers used the Internal Revenue Service Web site at record levels as the filing deadline approached, the agency said.

Anti-virus software provider Symantec said that the Internal Revenue Service is seeking roughly $1 billion in additional taxes, with the majority of that figure coming from Veritas Software Corp. -- a business that Symantex acquired in July.

In the glut of stories that came out around Tax Day, one in particular stood out.

Like most politicians, President Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney released the details of their federal income tax returns late last week.

With the slightly later Tax Day now past, the Internal Revenue Service is still accepting extension requests, for a six-month reprieve, through E-file.

The Senate Finance Committee didn't like what it found in investigating ancillary offers often made as part of using the Internal Revenue Service's Free File online tax return preparation services.

A Michigan husband and wife, who've been involved in previous tax protests, could soon face a court order preventing them from promoting what the government says is the No. 1 tax scheme in the country.

The National Taxpayer Advocate, Nina E. Olson, announced that the Internal Revenue Service has awarded $8 million in matching grants to Low Income Taxpayer Clinics.

For filers anticipating this year's tax refund, it naturally comes as a welcome e-mail: "We have determined that you are eligible to receive a tax refund of [X] dollars. To access the form for your tax refund, please click here."Who wouldn't like to get a tax refund? And an e-mail message sporting the official Internal Revenue Service logo is hard to ignore.

Tax prep giant H&R Block Inc. announced that its first-quarter tax preparation and related fees rose 3.7 percent from a year earlier, to a total of $1.98 billion.

A court order will allow the Internal Revenue Service to ask PayPal, a money transfer service owned by eBay Inc., to turn over information on customers who might be evading taxes.

Tax Freedom Day will fall on April 26 this year, according to the Tax Foundation's annual calculation using the latest government data on income and taxes.

A husband and wife have filed a case against Ernst & Young, blaming the firm for the loss of $40 million in a tax shelter deemed abusive by the Internal Revenue Service, according to a published report.

Taxware, a provider of transaction tax calculation and compliance solutions, has released its annual list of the "Top 10 Most Unusual U.S. Sales Tax Laws for 2006."

Tax research and software provider RIA has upgraded its proprietary Checkpoint service to include expansion of user access to BNA content, international standards and titles from sibling Thomson company PPC.

The just-released Winter 2005-2006 issue of the Statistics of Income Bulletin discloses that adjusted gross income rose in 2004 for the second year in a row, increasing by 8.9 percent to $6.8 trillion. The largest component of AGI, salaries and wages, increased 6.0 percent to $4,977.9 billion, while net capital gains rose 53.2 percent to $442.1 billion. Taxable income increased 10.6 percent to $4.6 trillion.

H.R. 5114, the Tax Return Choice Act of 2006, was introduced in the House and referred to the Ways and Means Committee.