Tax

Liberty Tax Service marked a milestone this week as the company officially welcomed its thousandth Liberty franchise entity. In the last two tax seasons, Liberty Tax Service has doubled the number of tax returns prepared in outlets throughout the U.S. and Canada. Less than 50 franchise companies have more than 1,000 franchisees on Entrepreneur magazine's list of top 500 franchise organizations in the world. "This year has been an exhilarating time of record growth in many areas for Liberty Tax. As we hit the mark of 1,000 franchisees in our operating system, we continue our quest and drive to be the No. 1 tax company in the industry," said John Hewitt, chief executive and founder of Liberty Tax Service. For the fourth consecutive year, Accounting Today named Hewitt one of the Top 100 Most Influential People in the tax industry. This year, Entrepreneur magazine ranked Liberty Tax Service as the ninth fastest growing franchise opportunity, one of the top 20 low-investment opportunities, and No. 28 on its overall list of best franchises. In March, Accounting Today magazine ranked Liberty among the fastest growing on its list of the Top 100 Tax & Accounting Firms.

The Internal Revenue Service has issued Notice 2004-71, providing procedures for persons required to prepare Form 1099-DIV and other information reporting with respect to dividends from foreign corporations and for individuals receiving such forms.

The American Jobs Creation Act of 2004, signed into law by President Bush last Friday, seems to have achieved its main goal of getting the European Union to lift $4 billion worth of sanctions on U.S. goods.

President Bush on Friday quietly signed the American Jobs Creation Act of 2004 into law, while flying on Air Force One to a campaign appearance in Pennsylvania.

As part of aggressive expansion plans, Fiducial, a provider of business outsourcing services to small businesses and entrepreneurs, has gained a foothold in the Midwest with the acquisition of Indianapolis-based Frontier CPA Group LLP.

The Internal Revenue Service Appeals Division has tightened the guidelines under which it will settle cases with taxpayers that participated in certain abusive transactions, the agency advised this week.

CCH Tax and Accounting made a big move into the document management business this week with the purchase of SIAN software by its parent, Wolters Kluwer Tax, Accounting & Legal, from Atlanta-based accounting firm Habif, Arogeti & Wynne.

Singer and songwriter Ronald Isley has been indicted on tax evasion charges for failing to report income that he received from performances and royalties as a member of the renowned Isley Brothers.

The Internal Revenue Service and the Virgin Islands Bureau of Internal Revenue said that they've established a new partnership to work together on common tax enforcement issues.

The Internal Revenue Service is reminding tax-exempt political organizations that filing deadlines are approaching for disclosure statements prior to the Nov. 2 election date. Information on 2004 political contributions and expenditures will be available for public inspection on the IRS Web site.Certain political organizations that are tax exempt under Section 527 of the Internal Revenue Code are required to file Form 8872, Report of Contributions and Expenditures. Organizations have the option of filing either monthly or quarterly.For quarterly filers, the third quarter report were due Oct. 15. Organizations filing monthly reports must submit their September information by Oct. 20. A pre-election report for both quarterly and monthly filers is due Oct. 21, or Oct. 18 if the report is sent by registered or certified mail.The October filings are the last reports that will be available to the public prior to the Nov. 2 election. A post-election report will be due on Dec. 2.