Tax Strategies

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.

When President Bush signs the FSC/ETI bill, the days of small business owners and professionals such as doctors and lawyers expensing luxury SUVs are over.Writers of the 600-page measure closed a tax break that allowed business owners to save as much as $33,000 on the purchase of a $1000,000 vehicle, according to Tax Analysts.The Jobs and Growth Tax Relief Reconciliation Act of 2003 created the break by increasing from $25,000 to $100,000 the amount that small businesses can expense in the first year for buying a vehicle weighing 6,000 pounds or more.The incentive was originally written to assist farmers and contractors to invest in larger equipment, but the floodgates opened when it was discovered that luxury SUVs also qualified.The amendment reduces the SUV deduction to $25,000, while still allowing the farmers and contractors the break.

New data suggesting that income tax noncompliance is on the rise among the Internal Revenue Service's own employees is causing some hand-wringing among members of an IRS task force formed to address the problem.