Tax

The Internal Revenue Service does not always identify potentially mistaken claims for General Business Credits when processing tax returns, according to a new government report that found unsupported claims for the credits totaling $1.3 billion for 2011.

A dozen emerging technology companies, including Twitter and Facebook, have enough unused tax breaks for executive stock options to eliminate all income taxes on the next $11.4 billion of U.S. income they collectively earn, according to a new report, giving them a net federal tax cut of $4 billion.

Anonymous visits by government auditors have uncovered accuracy problems with some of the tax returns prepared by volunteers who staff the Internal Revenue Service’s Volunteer Program, according to a new report.

Thomson Reuters has released a new special report on year-end tax planning for 2013 for individuals and businesses.

The American Institute of CPAs has written a letter to the Internal Revenue Service identifying 17 areas in which the IRS should provide additional guidance to tax practitioners and taxpayers in the wake of the Supreme Court’s decision ruling section 3 of the Defense of Marriage Act unconstitutional.

Rep. Mike Thompson, D-Calif., a senior member of the tax-writing House Ways and Means Committee, has introduced legislation to expand the New Markets Tax Credit program to provide up to $100 million a year to help distressed communities whose military installations have been either closed or realigned.

On Sept. 13, 2013, two years after the 2011 temporary and proposed regulations, the Internal Revenue Service issued final and reproposed tangible property regs. There are a number of differences between the final and reproposed regulations as compared to the 2011 regs, with a stated goal of simplifying and clarifying them and making them more administrable.

More and more companies are coming under scrutiny from tax authorities

Approximately 8,400 federal employees and contractors who were judged eligible for a security clearance from April 2006 to December 2011 owed approximately $85 million in unpaid federal taxes as of June 2012, according to a new government report.

It’s the time of year to again start thinking about expiring tax provisions. Usually the first thing that comes to mind is the alternative minimum tax, but this particular issue was “fixed” in January of this year by the fiscal cliff bill. That still leaves a number of expiring provisions, according to Robert Kerr, senior director of government relations at the National Association of Enrolled Agents.