Tax Reform in December 2012?

Source: Treasury's Flickr page At February 24, 2012, interview on CNBC, Treasury Secretary Geithner suggested, in a somewhat obtuse way,...

Policy & Internet - Internet Taxation Issue

The Policy & Internet journal , just released a special issue on Internet Taxation.  This online journal is published by the Policy Stu...

President Obama's Budget Proposals and Corporations

On February 13, President Obama released his proposed budget for fiscal year 2013 and the “ Green Book ” of revenue proposals. The budge...

California Assembly Hearing on Tax Expenditures

Today (February 22), the California Assembly Committee on Revenue & Taxation and the Committee on Accountability and Administrative Revi...

Complexity of the "Buffett Rule"

In September 2011, President Obama introduced the "Buffet Rule" as one of his five tax principles. It was part of his report - Liv...

Taxing the rich

A 2/17/12 New York Times article on tax rates of the rich and not so rich, includes data from the IRS. The NYT summarizes that data as foll...

Financial reporting issues of tax uncertainty

On February 8, 2012, the House Ways and Means Committee held a hearing on the Interaction of Tax and Financial Accounting on Tax Reform. In ...

Complexity for individuals dealing with 1099-C for cancelled debt

There are lots of complex areas in our tax law (I described a few in yesterday's post ). One that is affecting many individuals due to o...

Frustration with the federal tax system

Each week I receive a few emails from bloggers, people with tax reform proposals they'd like me to review as well as requests that are d...

More due diligence reminders for 2012 filing season

Part 2 of my short article in the AICPA Tax Insider on due diligence reminders for the current filing season is now available - here .  (Pa...

IRS not adequately funded to meet its mission

In January, the IRS National Taxpayer Advocate released the annual report to Congress ( IR-2012-6 ). I think the most serious issue identifi...

New Study on Possible Positive Effect of Tax on Sugar Beverages

Occasionally we hear of someone suggesting a tax on some type of sugar-filled product, such as soda. I have written about this a few times, ...

Analyzing Special Tax Rules + Observations from the Governor of Maine

A tax exemption means that a tax doesn't apply to what otherwise would be in the tax base. On January 6, 2012, Governor LaPage of Maine ...

GAO Report on IRS Website and Self-Service Tools

A GAO report - Processing Gains, but Taxpayer Assistance Could Be Enhanced by More Self-Service Tools, GAO-12-176 (12/15/11), states the f...

Simplifying compliance for the mobile workforce - looking at state costs

States need revenue and one place they can and do look is to see if an individual or business is in their state who does not pay taxes. One ...