News, practice tips, and industry updates for CPAs, enrolled agents, attorneys, and everyone else working in tax professionally.
As tax season rolls on, H&R Block reports that penalties are up for taxpayers who don’t have health care coverage and don’t otherwise qualify for an exemption. The number of taxpayers who have to pay back those healthcare credits is also up. What’s down? Tax refunds.
Tax return preparer fraud is nothing new but suspensions imposed by Maryland Comptroller Franchot on Liberty Tax franchise owners have raised eyebrows.
Identity theft continues to be a concern this tax season with two tax preparation software companies reporting unusual activity involving their customers. Tax preparation software companies TaxSlayer and TaxAct have reported suspicious account activity.
Looking to hire a tax professional this tax season? Here are 12 questions to ask when choosing a tax preparer.
Looking to file your tax return for free? IRS has announced that Free File is open and available to more than 70%, or 100 million, taxpayers.
This year, as part of an outreach effort to the unbanked and underbanked, taxpayers who have their taxes prepared at Jackson Hewitt can opt to have their federal tax refund added to an American Express Serve account. American Express Serve is a reloadable prepaid account backed by American Express.
If you’re already on Twitter, the list will make sense to you. If you’re not already on Twitter, here’s the scoop: Twitter is a social media site without the bells and whistles (and weird pressure) of Facebook. It’s a quick exchange of information, limited to 140 characters a pop. You can tweet opinions, news, pictures, or links…
With tax season opening soon, scammers aren’t just taking advantage of taxpayers, they’re preying on tax professionals, too. Earlier today, the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) warned tax professionals that new phishing scams are making the rounds, including an email asking e-services users to update their e-services information. Specifically, the email asks tax professionals to update their…
You’ve heard how cyber-attacks on big organizations like JPMorgan Chase, health insurer Anthem, and the federal Office of Personnel Management have put the personal information of tens of millions of Americans potentially at risk. But what if the biggest threat to your privacy comes from the practices of your local financial advisor, longtime lawyer, or…
With tax season just around the corner, Congress is taking another stab at legislation to license tax preparers. Representatives Diane Black (R-TN) and Pat Meehan (R-PA) have introduced H.R. 4141, the Tax Return Preparer Competency Act (downloads as a pdf). The introduction of the bill follows years of efforts by the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) to license tax return…