Tax

The Internal Revenue Service received a double barrel of criticism from Treasury Department watchdogs for not validating the amount of savings it claimed it would generate from various taxpayer service projects, and for laxness in security.

Fed up with his high semiannual property tax bills, landlord Cary Malchow lugged $12,656.07 in $1 bills and coins to the Delaware County, Ind., treasurer's office to watch employees there count it out.

Potential Republican presidential candidate Fred Thompson has written a letter indicating that he would be willing to support an overhaul of the Tax Code called the FairTax, which could replace the income tax system and all payroll taxes with a non-regressive national retail tax.

The Treasury Department and the Internal Revenue Service have issued notices warning about two kinds of transactions that could arouse their interest: "toggling" grantor trusts and contributions of a successor member interest in a limited liability company.

At least 61 percent of sole proprietor companies are underreporting their net business income, but a small proportion of them account for the bulk of understated taxes, according to a report by the Government Accountability Office.

The Internal Revenue Service and the Treasury Department's Office of Tax Policy have released a "priority guidance plan" for 2007-2008, outlining the 303 projects they plan to complete through June 2008.

An Atlanta federal court has permanently barred two Jackson Hewitt franchise employees from preparing taxes for others.

CCH and H&R Block signed an agreement that gives Block tax preparers and franchisees access to tax-training courses from the online CCH Learning Center.

A federal court has permanently barred a Queensbury, N.Y., man, Robert L. Schulz, and his organizations, We the People Congress and We the People Foundation, from promoting a tax scheme that encouraged businesses to stop withholding taxes from their employees' wages.

Grant Thornton named David Auclair as head of the accounting firm's National Tax Office.