Tax

The manager of an H&R Block branch in Southern California has been charged with using the identities of his former tax preparation clients to file false tax returns with the Internal Revenue Service.

It’s been said that you can’t tell the players without a scorecard. Where I need a scorecard is to figure out which tax provisions expired at the end of 2011, and those slated to give up the ghost at the end of 2012. Luckily, the Joint Economic Committee has a Web site that lists all of the expiring provisions of recent memory, together with the dates they expired or will expire.

The House has approved Republican-backed legislation to provide a tax cut of up to 20 percent for one year to companies with fewer than 500 employees.

The large differences in excise tax rates for various smoking products are prompting consumers with a tobacco habit to shift their smoking habits to pipes and larger cigars, according to a new government study.

Financial executives in the medical device industry say the new excise tax included in the health care reform law will take a major impact on reducing their bottom line, according to a new survey by KPMG.

With Democrats and Republicans in Congress battling over competing tax legislation this week, one new bill should be able to attract bipartisan support.

Agents at the IRS’s Criminal Investigation division have been cracking down on tax preparer fraud in Southern California in the waning days of tax season.

Senate Republicans blocked a bill promoted by the Obama administration that would impose a minimum tax on millionaires.

The Internal Revenue Service delayed tax refunds early this filing season for 7.8 million tax returns, according to a report by the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration, which also described steep cutbacks in customer service at the IRS.

President Barack Obama and congressional Republicans square off this week over tax hikes for millionaires and tax cuts for businesses, with both sides seen as more interested in scoring political points than in fixing the tax code or shrinking the deficit.