Tax

The American Institute of CPAs has updated its Total Tax Insights calculator with information from 2013 to help taxpayers gauge the impact of more than 20 different federal, state and local taxes, including a new Medicare surtax that took effect last year, on their own taxes for this year.

National Taxpayer Advocate Nina E. Olson urged the Internal Revenue Service to adopt a comprehensive Taxpayer Bill of Rights in her annual report to Congress Thursday, saying it would increase trust in the agency and, more generally, strengthen the IRS’s ability to serve taxpayers and collect tax. She also recommended allowing voluntary certification of unenrolled tax preparers if the IRS fails to win a court appeal of a ruling invalidating its testing requirements for tax preparers.

The Internal Revenue Service audited 0.96 percent of individual tax returns in fiscal 2013, declining for the second straight year and reaching the lowest rate since 2005.

Bill.com has signed an integration deal with tax filing solutions creator TechAtlantis and its Tax1099.com product to automate the process of creating and e-filing 1099-MISC forms.

Lyle Benson, founder of L.K. Benson & Co. and chairman of the AICPA's PFP Section, discusses how some of the tax changes in the past year could affect a client's financial planning this year, in an interview with Accounting Today editor-in-chief Daniel Hood.

The tax and business advisory firm WTP Advisors is predicting that Congress will renew the expired Research and Experimentation Tax Credit as it has traditionally done over the years.

CCH has published a new tax briefing outlining some of the significant tax changes of the past year.

Thomson Reuters has debuted Quickfinder Tax & Financial Tools, a set of calculators, worksheets and financial tools for tax and accounting practitioners.

The Internal Revenue Service has returned to offering videos to help taxpayers cope with tax season, while avoiding the spoofs of old TV series like Star Trek and Gilligan’s Island that landed IRS officials in hot water last year.

Check out the digital edition of the January 2014 issue of Accounting Today.