Tax

A controversial tax return inspection provision contained in a Bush administration budget bill for fiscal 2005 will be removed before the legislation is sent to the White House for the president's signature.

Internal Revenue Service enforcement activities brought in a record $43.1 billion in fiscal 2004, up 15 percent, or $5.5 billion, over 2003, the agency reported.

The Internal Revenue Service has raised the standard business mileage rate for automobile expenses for 2005 by three cents -- the largest one-year rise ever.

Tax reform under a second Bush Administration will most likely take the form of piecemeal tax cuts, according to panel participants at a conference of the Council for Electronic Revenue Communication Advancement, a government-private industry trade association.

Officials at the Public Company Oversight Board unveiled an aggressive agenda for the coming year that may result in as many as 11 new standards for auditors in areas ranging from corporate fraud detection and reporting to wrestling with related-party transactions.

The Internal Revenue Service scored high marks for processing returns and issuing refunds smoothly during the 2004 filing season, but didn't fare as well on accuracy in answering tax law questions, according to a Government Accountability Office report.

Deloitte ranks highest in satisfaction with tax firm performance among the Big Four, according to a study of tax firm performance by J.D. Power and Associates.

A group of former Intuit employees have launched Taxnet.com, which provides Internet-based filing of income taxes, along with electronic filing.

The sale of many of its offices two years ago pushed financial planning and tax prep firm Gilman+Ciocia Inc. into the black for fiscal 2004, as a $6.1 million gain on that sale wiped out an operating loss of just over $1 million for the year ended June 30.

The National Association of Securities Dealers charged H&R Block Financial Advisors Inc., the investment arm of the tax prep giant, with fraud in the sale of $16 million worth of Enron Corp. bonds after the energy firm's finances and bond ratings had begun to collapse.