Ways and Means to Hold Hearing on Internal Revenue Service Targeting Conservative Groups [W&M]
Former Acting Commissioner Steven Miller and TIGTA head J. Russell George will be testifying. FUN!
Should 501(c)(4)’s Be Eliminated? [NYT]
There's room for debate.
Nina Olson for IRS Commissioner [WSJ]
Ms. Olson is the ombudsman for the public inside the IRS. Her office parachutes in to aid individuals and businesses when the tax men are jerking them around, as well as making recommendations to Congress about modernizing the IRS and the tax code. She has held the post since 2001. Ms. Olson seems to view the job as a moral calling, which is much-needed. The integrity of the tax system must be paramount when people are required to hand over giant chunks of their income to government. It usually falls to Ms. Olson to admonish the IRS that its chronic dysfunctions are—to borrow one of her favorite words—"unconscionable."
Tax Court Judge Slams IRS Over Whistleblower Case [WSJ]
“We do not know whether these failures were the result of bureaucratic confusion or ineptitude,” the judge wrote. “We do know, however, that the obfuscation surrounding this matter has either been caused or exacerbated by respondent.”
IRS gives details of operations on furlough dates [JofA]
All IRS operations will be closed on the furlough dates, meaning no tax returns will be processed and no tax-compliance activities will occur. Nonetheless, taxpayers should continue to comply with all return filing and tax payment due dates because none of these have been extended by the furlough. However, the IRS will not be able to acknowledge any returns that are filed electronically on a furlough date. Taxpayers who have employment and excise tax deposits due on the furlough dates should continue to deposit them through the Electronic Federal Tax Payment System, which will remain in operation. In addition, the IRS is alerting taxpayers who have filing deadlines close to the furlough dates to plan ahead if they need assistance (e.g., the June 17 deadline for taxpayers abroad to file their income tax returns and the deadline for the second quarter estimated tax payment both fall on the Monday after the June 14 furlough day).
[S]ome accountants said they thought the new rule could succeed where previous efforts had failed. “The F.A.S.B. has made an attempt to keep it as simple as possible,” said Rick Day, the national director of accounting at McGladrey, an American firm that primarily audits smaller companies. “While it will be controversial, I think it will fly.”
900 clients of Lyons & Lyons may have been compromised.