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SHOCKER: Tax Reform Will Have to Wait

Posted on by Caleb Newquist

Thumbnail image for Thumbnail image for Tax Code.jpgIf you’re like us, you’ve been anticipating the report on tax reform from the President’s Economic Recovery Advisory Board like teenage girls jonesing for New Moon.
Unfortunately, the report has been delayed and the Board will only be issuing “an almanac” of ideas at this point. The original deadline was for this Friday but you know how that goes.


Apparently you heeded the call put forth by the White House because they’re still reviewing all your brilliant ideas:
Tax Vox (our emphasis):

The White House statement says the board has not yet had time to review the hundreds of ideas it has received from the public. At the time same time, it asked for more suggestions. Yet, it is hard to believe that the panel is going to hear much new. After all, the ground of simplification and enforcement has been pretty well-plowed for years.

So keep those ideas coming people. Anything goes. Abolishment? Sure, they’ll think about it. Taxing the stupid? Best idea we’ve heard so far. If you’ve got suggestions, drop them here first then ring up the WH. They’re waiting.
White House Tax Reform Report Delayed Until Next Year [Tax Vox]
Also see:
President’s Tax Reform Task Force to Miss Dec. 4 Deadline to Issue Report [TaxProf Blog]
Tax Reform Panel: Something Someday [Tax Update Blog]

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Happy March 15th! (2011)

Today marks a great day for our tax troll friends as the first corporate filing deadline of the year. For many of you, this marks the end of the traditional tax season and for the rest of you it’s more of a speed bump but it’s a sure sign that the traditional tax season is winding down.

So as the interns slap together the extensions, maybe dig into your drawer for a little pick-me-up and look over your bracket one last time. Just keep an eye out for the Judases amongst you. As far as they’re concerned, the extensions should have been finished a week ago and you should already be a dead sprint towards April 15th 18th.

Gird Your Loins, Unscrupulous Tax Preparers

The IRS is on you like white on rice.

The Internal Revenue Service is taking steps to stop tax preparers with criminal tax convictions or permanent injunctions from preparing tax returns. This is just one of several recent moves to improve the quality and oversight of the tax preparation industry.

More than 700,000 tax preparers nationwide have registered with the IRS and obtained Preparer Tax Identification Numbers (PTINs). This nine-digit number must be used by paid tax return preparers on all returns or claims for refund. Paid preparers must renew their PTINs annually to legally prepare tax returns.

“We owe it to all taxpayers and the many honest tax return preparers to remove the relatively small number of bad actors from the tax preparation industry,” said Doug Shulman, IRS Commissioner. “Just one unscrupulous tax return preparer can cause a lot of financial damage to both taxpayers and the tax system.”

Nineteen ne’er-do-wells have already gotten word that they’ll be stripped of their PTINs for unseemly behavior of some kind or another. Best get that CPA so you don’t have to mess with the whole thing…until you the IRS lumps them in too.

IRS Begins Enforcement of New Return Preparer Rules [IRS]

Obama Gives Corporate Jet Owners, Hedge Fund Managers the Business About Their Taxes

From the press conference that is still going, “I don’t think it’s real radical” to ask corporate jet owners and millionaires to pay higher taxes, Obama said. “No-one wants to see the U.S default.”

And then:

You can’t reduce debt levels without… increasing revenue in some way,” Obama said. “That revenue is coming out of folks who are doing extraordinarily well, and enjoying the lowest tax rates since before I was born. If you are a wealthy CEO or hedge fund manager in America right now, your taxes are lower than they have ever been.”

[via BI, NYT]