The Senate Finance Committee has introduced bipartisan legislation to improve protection for taxpayers against fraudulent tax refund claims made with stolen identities. The refund theft tax bill includes new assistance for taxpayers who have been victims of identity theft and requires the Internal Revenue Service to establish a new security feature that individuals can use […]
It’s the biggest city in the nation, so reasonable it would have a proportionally higher crime rate, right? Yes, even for taxes. New York state recently sent out 56 tax suspension letters. 40 preparers seem to have accepted the judgement and the other 16 preparers are challenging the action. Due to the increased tax-related crimes, […]
The IRS is at it again… Since they were shut down on their authority to mandate all tax preparers get continuing education and take a competency test, they have now developed a “voluntary certification” that preparers can opt into. The program is called the Annual Federal Tax Refresher Course; and yes, successful completion of the […]
Just as quickly as we update our ITIN materials and guidelines the ITIN policy office within the IRS has changed their stance yet again! Just released: ITINs (Individual Taxpayer Identification Numbers) will expire after 5 consecutive years of non-filing use. This is a change from the services’ previously stated policy of automatically expiring ITINs after […]
Federal Direct offices will be closed in observance of Independence Day on July 4th, 2014. Our offices will reopen Monday July 7th, 2014 at the normal time of 9am EST. If you have an emergency during this time please contact your account representative directly or contact support at: support@federaldirecttax.com. An after hours representative will contact […]
The Freedom From Religion Foundation is suing the IRS for failing to enforce the ban on churches contributing to/intervening with political campaigns. Separation between Church and State? Not lately. The IRS says that the audits are on hold until finalizing rules that requires “high-level” official to approve the examinations. The Freedom From Religion Foundation believes […]
Yes, it’s true. The IRS has recently become the green-fleshed Hulk of our governmental body. This year the IRS has been on a roll changing things to improve the system, prevent fraud, smash identity theft, and, in the writer’s opinion, get it’s act together before facilitating the facilitation of the individual mandate come 2014. Really, […]
The IRS has recently made changes to various forms that are not related to the upcoming legislation. Several forms that relate to the Additional Child Tax Credit and Education Credits have been updated to include questions for verification of the claim for the credit. The Education Credit Form 8863 now includes entries for the institution’s […]
Today, the IRS released updated procedures to strengthen the Individual Taxpayer Identification Number (ITIN) program. The IRS has decided to keep many of the rules that have been in place during the Interim Period relating to original documents and certified copies from issuing agencies. Taxpayers applying for themselves will need to include original documents or […]
A woman with a plethora of health problems made several large taxable gifts to her daughter, but failed to make the gift tax return by the filing date. The woman was down with pneumonia and heart palpitations. She had cataract surgery and knee replacement surgery during the same time period. The court refused to waive […]