Tax Strategies

A federal report says that the Internal Revenue Service needs to put a better system in place to evaluate the results of the private debt collection program it implemented this fall.The Government Accountability Office looked at a trio of issues, including whether the IRS addressed critical success factors before limited implementation, whether the IRS will assess lessons learned before fuller implementation, and finally, whether the IRS’s planned study will help determine if using private contractors is the best use of federal funds.

The Internal Revenue Service is pushing back the printing schedule for a number of its tax products, including several versions of the 1040 and 1099 forms.Earlier this month, the IRS warned the Senate Finance Committee tax staff that delays in enacting a number of expiring tax breaks could have an adverse impact on tax administration -- affecting outside contracts with vendors to get the forms and instructions printed, and possibly eventually having a negative impact on collections.

Nearing the November elections, Intuit Inc. has given $1 million to a California political action committee called the Alliance for California's Tomorrow.The group has already spent $66,000 supporting the campaign of Republican Tony Strickland for state controller, according to the Los Angeles Times.

Robert Wayne Hallock was convicted by a federal judge today of tax evasion for attempting to hide from the government over $1 million obtained by selling fraudulent certificates of deposit, the Justice Department and Internal Revenue Service jointly announced.According to the indictment, in February 1997, Hallock, formerly a partner at the law firm of Kirkland & Ellis LLP in Chicago, sold a fraudulent CD from which he received approximately $1.8 million dollars. In an attempt to hide that income from the government, Hallock funneled it through a Florida bank account in the name of Himmel & Grund, LLC and hired an associate to use the from that bank account to purchase hundreds of thousands of dollars in cashier’s checks that Hallock used to spend on personal expenditures.

In a press conference timed to coincide with the 20th anniversary of President Reagan’s signing the last major tax reform act into law, former Sen. Bill Bradley, D-N.J., and Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., issued a call for another tax reform push.Wyden has introduced his Fair Flat Tax Act in the Senate, which includes provisions to lower tax rates and broaden the overall tax base. The legislation would allow taxpayers to file their returns on a simplified, single-page 1040 form; collapse individual tax brackets from the current six down to just three; and set a single, flat corporate rate. The bill would also end the alternative minimum tax and contains a unique provision to provide a refundable 10-percent tax credit for every taxpayer’s state and local taxes -- a benefit for taxpayers who don’t itemize.

I always believed that New York had a deserved reputation of aggressively going after individuals regarding whether they have New York residency with regard to collection of its income and estate taxes.

The American Institute of CPAs and the National Association of the State Boards of Accountancy have reached compromises that could potentially affect both the peer review process and issue of substantial equivalency/mobility.With regard to the 18-year-old peer review process, the institute -- working with state boards and NASBA -- unveiled a new model for transparency, which contains an “opt out” provision by firms for voluntary state board disclosure of peer review results.

Beginning in January, Link2Gov will be able to process credit card payments related to federal business tax Forms 941 and 940 for an expanded number of filing years -- 1997 through present balance due.

Let me preface my weekly missive with the admission that I’m a Wesley Snipes groupie.

Surfing champion Sunny Garcia was sentenced to three months in federal prison for failing to pay taxes on more than $417,000 in prize money.