A Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration study reports that the Internal Revenue Service failed to resolve math error disputes with taxpayers within its self-imposed 30-day deadline 40% of the time and that 17% of such disputes were not resolved accurately. TIGTA made recommendations to the IRS regarding the problem but reports that IRS management does not agree with those recommendations.
The Congressional Budget Office predicted that unemployment will remain high, making the task of the congressional panel charged with reducing the deficit more difficult. "A great deal of the pain of this economic downturn still lies ahead of us," said CBO Director Douglas Elmendorf.
The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.'s Quarterly Banking Profile for the three months ended June 30 said the health of the nation's banks improved enough to turn the Deposit Insurance Fund balance positive for the first time in two years. Insured institutions' profits rose 38% from the prior-year period, as loan-loss provisions and noncurrent loans both continued trends of large declines
The Treasury Department is considering a $10 million income cap for small businesses, leading some to believe it could require companies earning more than that amount to pay corporate taxes. The move could also affect larger flow-through entities such as partnerships, S corporations and limited liability companies, whose owners pay income tax but not corporate taxes on the companies' earnings.
The federal Affordable Care Act extended the expanded adoption credit through 2011. Pursuing the refund requires filing paper tax returns because certain documents must be included, writes IRS expert Jesse Weller. Processing can take longer than the stated six to eight weeks, sometimes because of documentation and verification requirements.
Final regulations issued by the Internal Revenue Service expand the acceptable methods taxpayers can use to provide prima facie evidence that they have delivered physical documents or payments to the IRS or the Tax Court. Under criteria to be published by the IRS, delivery by certain private delivery services as well as registered and certified mail will suffice.