Tax Strategies

With one debate already in the books, we’re not really any closer to knowing what taxes will be in the books, or not, come January. In fact, when the ball drops on New Year’s Eve, we may still need a crystal ball to tell us in what direction we are headed.

President Barack Obama and Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney traded barbs about tax policy and how they would control the budget deficit, with Romney telling Obama at one point that he might need to get a new accountant.

The National Small Business Association has released its Tax Reform Checklist outlining nine key principles that any serious tax reform proposal ought to include.

The New York State Society of CPAs has asked Congress to consider new legislation that would temporarily waive tax penalties for taxpayers who are forced to make early withdrawals from retirement accounts due to financial hardship caused by the economic crisis.

Income acceleration techniques for 2012 year-end planning

In January 1999, a trust set up by Mitt Romney for his children and grandchildren reaped a 1,000 percent return on the sale of shares in Internet advertising firm DoubleClick Inc.

The top personal income tax area of concern for technology executives that CPA Bill Melton of the Silicon Valley accounting firm Abbott, Stringham & Lynch sees in his client base is equity compensation.

Cincinnati, Baltimore and Cleveland ranked highest among large cities in their tax favorability for businesses, according to a new study by KPMG, with New Orleans and Baton Rouge, La., leading the way among smaller cities.

The Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations held a hearing on offshore profit shifting and the U.S. tax code, examining in particular the practices of Microsoft and Hewlett-Packard, while questioning an Ernst & Young tax partner who services HP.

Congress’s two tax-writing committees, the House Ways and Means Committee and the Senate Finance Committee, held a joint hearing Thursday to discuss capital gains taxes and how they might be reformed.