The Internal Revenue Service has released new guidance on penalties for failing to file a foreign bank account report, capping the maximum percentage of the penalty and providing new requirements for documentation and approval by IRS examiners. In a memorandum last month from three commissioners in charge of various divisions of the IRS, they wrote,…
The Internal Revenue Service’s Criminal Investigation unit was among the law enforcement agencies involved in indicting nine officials from FIFA, the international soccer federation that hosts the World Cup, along with five corporate executives involved in a massive bribery scheme. A 47-count indictment was unsealed early this morning in federal court in Brooklyn charging 14…
The Internal Revenue Service’s collection employees might not be taking all the actions they could to collect tax debts owed by defunct companies before closing out the cases, according to a new report. The report, from the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration, found that IRS employees did not complete all the required case actions…
The Internal Revenue Service warned of a huge data breach of its online Get Transcript application that allowed the tax returns of approximately 104,000 taxpayers to be accessed by identity thieves. The IRS said Tuesday that criminals used taxpayer-specific data acquired from non-IRS sources to gain unauthorized access to information on the tax accounts through…
The IRS is refunding test fees to those who took the Registered Tax Return Preparer test. The agency plans to mail “RTRP Refund Notification” letters to people who are due a refund before the end of May. Refund checks will be mailed separately, starting approximately June 2, 2015. The IRS cited the recent federal Appeals…
If you gave money or property to someone as a gift, you may wonder about the federal gift tax. Many gifts are not subject to the gift tax. Here are seven tax tips about gifts and the gift tax. 1. Nontaxable Gifts. The general rule is that any gift is a taxable gift. However, there…
No doubt a good portion of your overwhelming workload over the past tax season involved correcting goofs from clients’ previous tax preparers. Mistakes seem to run the gamut from typos to tangibles, from basics to basis. “Depreciation: It’s crazy how many mistakes I see,” said Enrolled Agent Jeffrey Schneider in Port St. Lucie, Fla. “I’ve…
The American Institute of CPAs kicked off its Spring Meeting of Council in Washington, D.C., on Sunday with a packed agenda of meetings with lawmakers to press for priorities, including improvements in taxpayer service by the Internal Revenue Service. The AICPA Council members passed a resolution calling on policy makers to “create an objective, bipartisan…
Anyone starting a new business should be aware of his or her federal tax responsibilities. Here are several things you should know if you plan on opening a new business this year. 1. First, you must decide what type of business entity you are going to establish. The type of business you open will determine…
Whenever you sell business or investment property and you have a gain, you generally have to pay tax on the gain at the time of sale. Under Section 1031 of the IRC, however, if you reinvest the proceeds from the sale in similar property as part of a qualifying like-kind exchange, the tax code provides…
