Ken Berry, JD

New legislation passed by the House tying the “doc fix” to Obamacare is expected to meet its demise on the Senate floor. Thus, a once-promising solution to a long-term problem is likely to turn into another victim of bipartisan politics.

The Obama administration is relying on various federal agencies and organizations to help implement the complex rules under the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA), the comprehensive health care legislation otherwise known as “Obamacare.” Naturally, the IRS is expected to play a major role, including enforcement of the penalties for failing to obtain minimum coverage and imposition of the 3.8% Medicare surtax on “net investment income” (NII) for certain upper-income investors.

President Obama has just released a new 2015 budget designed to raise more than $1 trillion in revenue over the next ten years by boosting income taxes for upper-income individuals, closing or tightening tax loopholes and scaling back estate tax benefits.

On March 5, the government released a second set of comprehensive regulations relating to the controversial health care legislation. Previously, regulations had extended the employer mandate for certain mid-sized firms by one year to January 1, 2016, while all responsible firms had benefited from a prior one-year delay. Now, following an earlier reprieve, the grace period for individual policies that don’t meet the law’s requirements has been extended by two years, to October 1, 2016.

Tax reform is back in on the table. On February 26, 2014, U.S. Representative Dave Camp (Rep.-Mich.), the chairman of the House Ways & Means Committee, released a much-anticipated draft of a major tax overhaul. Camp’s proposed reforms, which were three years in the making, reflect bipartisan efforts to simplify the tax code and provide equality to taxpayers.

With about a month to go before the open enrollment period for Obamacare ends – the official deadline is March 31, 2014 – the federal government continues to tweak the rules for the landmark healthcare legislation.

According to a new report prepared on behalf of the Urban Institute for the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, the impetus for covering more taxpayers under Obamacare could come from an intriguing source: Tax return preparers.

According to a new federal court of appeals case, the IRS doesn’t have the authority to regulate tax return preparers who routinely file returns on behalf of taxpayers.

The recent decision to postpone the employer mandate to provide affordable health care coverage to full-time employees under Obamacare (the “play or pay rules”) is welcome news to certain mid-sized companies.

Under the federal income tax law – specifically, Section 408(d)(3)(B) of the Internal Revenue Code – a taxpayer can roll over funds from one IRA to another only once a year.

A new simplified method devised by the IRS for claiming home office deductions is much faster and easier to use than the unwieldy traditional method.

Between Fiscal Year (FY) 2009 and FY 2013, the IRS has averaged approximately 3,500 criminal referrals a year, a staggering 38.4% increase from the years in which George W. Bush inhabited the White House.