Tax Strategies

The U.S. government recorded record-high overall and corporate tax receipts on Sept. 15 -- a quarterly deadline for tax payments, the Treasury announced.

A federal grand jury has indicted five individuals for allegedly orchestrating a $14 million tax fraud scheme, the Department of Justice and Internal Revenue Service announced.

Tax administration heads from more than 30 countries have agreed to work together on ways to improve tax administration and address the growing problem of international non-compliance with national tax requirements.

The trio of private debt collection agencies that the Internal Revenue Service selected for a pilot program will soon be able to come knocking. The agency was due to turn over data on 12,500 taxpayers - each owing $25,000 or less in back taxes - toward the end of August.To assist the agency in collecting back taxes, the 2004 American Jobs Creation Act authorized the IRS to hire private firms to collect federal tax debts. IRS Commissioner Mark Everson has openly admitted that the program will cost more than the agency simply hiring more tax collectors, but under federal budget rules, money spent to hire collectors is treated as a discretionary expense, which Congress has been cutting.

The selection by an entity of its company structure, its fiscal year and its method of accounting are the three main mechanisms that a company can employ in performing substantial tax planning, according to Nicholas Crocetti, CPA, a partner in CBiz Accounting Tax & Advisory."The concept of an accounting method is much broader than what many people believe," he said. "Most companies employ a number of accounting methods. First, they have an overall method of accounting - for example, the cash method, accrual or some form of hybrid method. Additionally, companies need accounting methods for every timing item they encounter in their business, such as how to account for inventory, bad debts, vacation pay and self-insured medical expenses."

As part of the recently signed pension bill, the Treasury Department and the Internal Revenue Service will have to better define what constitutes "good" condition for donations of clothing or household items.The IRS can deny deductions for donated items such as furniture, appliances, linens or electronics if the items aren't in appropriate condition.

The newly released 2006-2007 Internal Revenue Service Priority Guidance Plan, designed as the agency's own blueprint for its guidance projects during the coming year, ranges in scope from consolidated returns to tax-exempt bonds.The Guidance Plan contains 10 more projects than last year's plan, and includes projected rulings on corporations and shareholders, employee benefits, executive compensation, excise taxes, exempt organizations, estate and gift taxes, partnerships, S corporations, and international issues.

Word of a potential tax bill registering in the tens of millions for Tyco International Ltd. came to light this week in the government's trial against a former Tyco executive.

It isn't the acts of a single executive, or the misses of a particular audit team, that most concern Public Company Accounting Oversight Board member Charles Niemeier when he reflects back on the corporate scandals that resulted in the passage of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act.

Using one of dozens of scenarios, undercover government auditors were mostly satisfied with the levels of assistance they received at several of the Internal Revenue Service's Taxpayer Assistance Centers.