The Internal Revenue Service moves forward with its plan to clarify rewards and awards for taxpayers providing information regarding violations of tax laws, without making any of the changes recommended by practitioners.

The extension of a 2 percentage point payroll tax cut through the end of the year moves a step closer to passage after a House-Senate conference committee approves an agreement brokered just minutes before a midnight deadline to assure a House and Senate vote before the Presidents' Day recess.

In Adam v. U.S., No. 8:05-cv-00987 (C.D. Cal. 12/28/11), the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California, in a case remanded by the Ninth Circuit, dismissed two siblings' suit for quiet title to property, holding that they only held bare legal title to the property as nominees for their parents under California law and, therefore, lacked standing under 28 USC §2410 (Judiciary and Judiciary Procedure) to challenge federal tax liens filed against their parents that attached to the property.

 

A last-minute agreement to satisfy the concerns of Senate Republicans and Maryland Democrats on the payroll tax cut conference committee will allow lawmakers to move ahead on a final floor vote to extend the tax break, the committee's leaders announced early today.

As is widely known, taxpayers must pay interest on tax deficiencies and the IRS must pay interest on overpayments. The interest rates charged by the IRS for deficiencies is not surprisingly higher than the interest rate paid on overpayments.

House Majority Leader Cantor says that lawmakers have reached a tentative “framework” for an agreement to extend the payroll tax cut and so-called “doc fix” through the end of 2012 without using any new tax increases as offsets for the package.

Companies will have to report uncertain tax positions in some cases where they have not recorded a reserve because they intend to litigate an issue, IRS says in a new example in the instructions to the 2011 Schedule UTP.

Proposed regulations from the IRS on the 2.3 percent excise tax on medical devices, designed to generate $20 billion as part of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, will fire up congressional legislative efforts to repeal the tax, analysts tell Bloomberg BNA.

The Labor Department's Employee Benefits Security Administration releases long-awaited final regulations on ERISA Section 408(b)(2) that establish specific disclosure obligations for plan service providers.

Senate Finance Committee Chairman Baucus warns H.R. 3630 conference committee negotiators that unless the panel can find a way to agree on suitable ways to pay for extending the entire payroll tax cut package through 2012, a shorter-term extension might be required again.