Practice Management & Professional Standards

Topics

August 1, 2007

Securities Basis Reporting Aired

Requiring securities brokers to report basis on their customers’ transactions has received renewed attention in Congress as a way to help bridge the “tax gap.” Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus, D-Mont., and ranking minority member Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, presented draft legislation in late May. Bills also have been introduced

July 1, 2007

IRS Issues Guidance on Monetary Penalties

The IRS published guidance in Notice 2007-39 to outline how it will wield its new statutory authority to impose monetary penalties on taxpayer representatives for violations of Circular 230. The amendment to 31 USC §330 empowers the Service to levy monetary penalties for violations occurring after Oct. 22, 2004. The

July 1, 2007

AICPA Tax Division to Teach Quality Control

The AICPA Tax Division’s proposed Statement on Standards for Tax Services no. 9, Quality Control, will provide a basis of an educational effort by the Tax Division. The proposed standard was exposed for public comment in December 2005. After reviewing the comments, the AICPA Tax Executive Committee decided early this

July 1, 2007

Tax Patents Considered

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office since 1998 has granted patents to business methods. In recent years, these patents have come to include strategies to minimize tax, a development many observers find troubling. Tax strategy patents complicate tax advising, return preparation and compliance, since

May 1, 2007

35% Flat Tax Hits Non-CPAs

A C corporation that provides accounting services doesn’t have to be owned by or employ CPAs to be taxed at the flat 35% personal-services corporation rate of section 11(b)(2), according to a recent Tax Court ruling. In Rainbow Tax Service, Inc. v. Commissioner, 128 T.C. No. 5, the taxpayer was