By  Michael Cohn September 29, 2016 
 
The Tax Foundation has released its annual ranking of states and how competitive their business tax codes are.

The think tank’s 13th annual State Business Tax Climate Index examines over 100 different variables in five tax categories: corporate, individual income, sales, property, and unemployment insurance.

New York (September 29, 2016)  
By Suzanne Woolley

(Bloomberg) The very rich are different from you and me. They even have their own IRS audit squad.

Saturday marks the start of the fourth quarter, a time of financial reckoning, of crashing toward quotas and scrambling to reach year-end targets. Corporations and individuals alike rush to cut the income tax they'll need to pay next year. Some go too far (or just miss things, or misunderstand what and how they need to report). The IRS collected $6.3 billion last year assessing taxpayers for underreported income. Among them are the big fish, honored with the IRS equivalent of a SWAT team.

Washington, D.C. (September 28, 2016)  
By  Michael Cohn

Despite years of cuts to the Internal Revenue Service budget and its employee count, the agency is nonetheless collecting more tax revenue, according to a new report.

The report on IRS compliance activities, from the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration, noted that in fiscal year 2015, the IRS continued to lose employees who could provide taxpayer service and enforce the tax laws. Although there was a slight increase in the IRS’s fiscal 2014 budget, the budget for fiscal 2015 declined 3 percent to $345 million, from $11.3 billion to $10.9 billion.

September 23, 2016  
By ROGER RUSSELL 

A CPA-attorney, when asked what he does for a living, replies that he “practices tax.”

This is understandable, according to James Mahon, a shareholder in the Tax and Litigation practice groups of law firm Becker & Poliakoff.

“In the tax area, the lines between accountants and attorneys can be blurred. Some lawyers prepare tax returns, and many accountants help structure business transactions in order to achieve optimum tax benefits,” he explained.

September 23, 2016  
By Robert Trinz

With summer now behind us, it’s time for older taxpayers—those ages 65 and above—to consider how they will be affected by the higher post-2016 floor beneath medical expenses.

Some may lose their medical expense deduction next year, while others may even be forced to take the standard deduction for the first time as a result of the raised floor. As this article explains, the first line of defense for older taxpayers is to make sure they aren't missing any medical deduction dollars. Then, it may pay to employ a bunching strategy for 2016-2017 expenses to make sure such taxpayers make the best use of their medical expense deductions.