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Eliminating Tax Expenditures Might Not Yield As Much Revenue as Expected

May 10th, 2011 Lawmakers need to dial back expectations for revenue gains from the elimination of tax expenditures in the Internal Revenue Code, panelists said May 6 at the American Bar Association Section of Taxation May meeting. Each year the Joint Committee on Taxation releases a publication outlining the tax expenditures currently in the tax […]

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IRS Responds to AICPA Accounting Software Examination Letter

May 6th, 2011 In a March 29 letter from Patricia Thompson, chair of the AICPA’s Tax Executive Committee, to Chris Wagner, commissioner of the IRS’ Small Business/Self-Employed Division, the AICPA communicated its concerns regarding the Service’s program to request the accounting software files of certain small business taxpayers under examination; the letter cites QuickBooks and […]

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Estate Planning: Certain Uncertainty

May 5th, 2011 In January 2010 we were faced with a world without an estate tax. Most “experts” expected Congress to re-enact the federal estate tax as it applied in 2009. The world without an estate tax involved “carryover basis” of property inherited from a decedent who passed away in 2010. In simple terms, the […]

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Baucus: Taxing Some Passthroughs as Corporations May Be Key for Reform

May 5th, 2011 Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus (D-Mont.) said May 4 that taxing large passthrough entities as if they were corporations may be a necessary part of any corporate tax reform effort. To get the corporate tax rate down to 26 percent—as many tax experts have recommended—would require that all business tax expenditures […]

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Biden’s debt talks open Thursday with parties split on new taxes

May 5th, 2011 Tax policy is again dividing Democrats and Republicans as they begin negotiations Thursday on what budget process reforms to attach to legislation raising the $14.3 trillion debt ceiling. Rather than focusing on making specific spending cuts or tax increases now, the talks are shaping up to be about how to require such […]

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U.S. mulls making more firms pay corporate tax

May 1st, 2011 The Obama administration is considering a plan to force more businesses to pay the corporate income tax, an industry group said, in an overhaul package that could be unveiled as early as this month. Under the proposal, entities with more than $50 million in gross receipts would pay the corporate income tax, […]

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New regulations for accounts holding Federal benefits

May 2nd, 2011 It just got a little harder for banks to seize money from accounts holding federal benefits like Social Security and disability checks. A new rule issued by the Treasury Department and a group of other federal agencies takes effect Monday and aims to protect struggling retirees and others who depend on government […]

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Economy slows in 1Q; unemployment claims jump

April 29th, 2011 The economy slowed sharply in the first three months of the year, and more people sought unemployment benefits last week, the second rise in three weeks. The economy in the first quarter was hampered as high gas prices cut into consumer spending, bad weather delayed construction projects and the federal government slashed […]

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IRS Expands Rules on Deductible Home-Equity Debt

May 2011 In Revenue Ruling 2010-25, the IRS ruled that a taxpayer can deduct as qualified residence interest up to $1.1 million of the debt securing the purchase of a taxpayer’s principal residence. While personal interest is nondeductible, qualified residence interest, which includes both interest on acquisition indebtedness and home-equity indebtedness, is generally deductible. IRC […]

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IRS Begins Enforcement of New Return Preparer Rules

April 25th, 2011 The Internal Revenue Service is taking steps to stop tax preparers with criminal tax convictions or permanent injunctions from preparing tax returns. This is just one of several recent moves to improve the quality and oversight of the tax preparation industry. More than 700,000 tax preparers nationwide have registered with the IRS […]

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