Tax Strategies

When I was child and invited to a birthday party, I almost always left with a bag of goodies, usually candy, maybe a lollipop, some chocolate bars, sour balls, and probably a piece of licorice.

In consideration of the continuing impact of Hurricane Katrina, the Internal Revenue Service has further postponed filing and payment requirements for businesses until Oct. 16, 2006, which is the same deadline established earlier for certain individual income tax return filers.The postponement now applies to individual, corporation, partnership, estate, trust, S corporation, generation-skipping, employment and certain excise tax returns with original or extended due dates that fall on or after Aug. 29, 2005, but before Oct. 16, 2006.

Tax and accounting software provider CCH, a Wolters Kluwer business, said it now offers Sales Tax Load Utilities for Sage Software, integrating CCH-supplied sales and use tax rates with such Sage accounting lines as MAS 90, MAS 200, MAS 500 and Accpac.CCH said that its Sales Tax Load Utilities eliminate tax managers having to track and manually update tax rates within their Sage accounting systems. Users can download monthly rate change information and load it directly into their accounting system tax tables.

The Internal Revenue Service announced that a draft of Form 8888, "Direct Deposit of Refund," a new form for taxpayers who opt to split their refunds among accounts, is now available for public comment.

After nine years, a federal report says that college tuition tax credits aren't necessarily providing the boon originally intended for poorer families.

By now, readers of this space are well aware of my skepticism about the efficiency of any program that is government-run. No matter how well-intentioned, they never turn out quite the way they're presented to those charged with initial approval.

The New York State Society of Public Accountants, the oldest state accounting association, representing approximately 30,000 CPAs, has offered certain suggestions regarding pending legislation in Congress affecting estate planning-- specifically emphasizing the pressing need for certainty and ease of administration with respect to the transfer tax.

A trio of state accounting boards have objected to the 'jointness' of a joint project from the Financial Accounting Standards Board and the American Institute of CPAs to form a committee to look at the financial accounting and reporting standard-setting process for private companies.

A federal appeals court ruled that the government can't tax cash settlements plaintiffs receive for emotional distress and other "intangible injuries."

The trio of private debt collection agencies the Internal Revenue Service selected for a pilot program will soon be able to come knocking.