Tax

The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development has removed the Marshall Islands from its list of "uncooperative" and "harmful" tax havens as the group continues to pare down the destinations for money laundering.

One of the more intriguing ideas in the energy bill that the House passed over the weekend was that of doing a "carbon audit" of the U.S. Tax Code. Exactly how Congress proposes to conduct such an audit is another matter.

The remaining five defendants in the KPMG tax shelter case are seeking a postponement in the trial until after October.

Bestselling financial writer Wade Cook was slapped with an 88-month jail term for defrauding the Internal Revenue Service.

House lawmakers passed a $16 billion energy tax bill that does away with tax breaks for oil and gas companies and shifts the incentives to alternative energy, despite the threat of a veto from President Bush.

The Internal Revenue Service said that owners of thousands of Ford, Toyota and Lexus hybrid vehicles can continue to claim the Alternative Motor Vehicle Credit, but the phase-out period for claiming the credit has already begun for Toyota and Lexus owners because of strong sales of the company's hybrids.

Sixty percent of Internal Revenue Service employees were duped into giving control of their passwords to unauthorized callers, according to an inspection report that found lingering problems with computer security years after they were supposed to have been corrected.

The Internal Revenue Service has released drafts of the updated income tax forms for corporations and partnerships, and is asking for comments before it finalizes the changes for tax year 2008 and beyond.

The Collection Financial Standards, the measures used by the Internal Revenue Service in negotiating installment agreements and offers in compromise, have been stuck in a time warp, according to observers."They haven't been updated since January 2006," observed New York-based attorney and CPA Michael Breslin, managing partner of FullServe Group LLC. "It has affected our ability to negotiate and it mandates higher amounts that are not fair. These numbers are based on 2005 figures and they were issued in early 2006."

Conceding that a full-blown repeal of the alternative minimum tax may now be near-impossible, representatives of the nation's enrolled agents urged Congress to place new restrictions on the type of tax preparers authorized to prepare AMT returns."Repealing the full AMT would be a huge step in the simplification of the Tax Code, but one that may no longer be in the cards," EA Frank Degen told the Senate Finance Committee on behalf of the National Association of Enrolled Agents. "Practically, we admit that full repeal of the AMT may be a bridge too far for Congress to cross."