Income Tax

The Internal Revenue Service says that interest rates will remain the same for the third calendar quarter of this year, which begins July 1, 2014.

However, there’s a silver tax lining if the pool is needed by a family member to alleviate arthritis or some other specific illness. For a medically-necessary improvement made by a homeowner, the deductible amount is equal to the cost above the corresponding increase in the home's value. In addition, the annual maintenance costs associated with the pool — chlorine, repairs, utilities, cleaning services, etc. -- also qualify for the deduction. Note that the entire cost of a qualified improvements, plus the maintenance costs, is deductible by tenants.

June's arrival for many Pennsylvanians signifies the start of summer fun -- beaches, sun and outdoor activities. But at the state Capitol, it's crunch time.

The Internal Revenue Service has released the spring 2014 issue of the Statistics of Income Bulletin, which provides information on high-income individual income tax returns filed for tax year 2011.

Drake Software is a tax software solution designed for quick data entry and return processing. A unique aspect to Drake Software is the all-inclusive pricing model. This allows tax practitioners to process unlimited federal, state and electronic filing at a known, fixed rate with no additional function modules to purchase. Drake’s software system includes built-in free modules for client write-up, payroll and practice management.

The IRS isn’t backing off on its tough stance involving the “once-a-year-IRA rollover” rule. In the aftermath of a new case tightening the restriction for IRA owners (Bobrow, TC Memo 2014-21), it recently announced it intends the follow the Tax Court’s lead on this issue. However, showing some leniency, the IRS now says it won’t implement the new rule until 2015, providing clients with leeway for the rest of this year (Announcement 2014-15)

An income tax preparer in the Miami, Florida suburb of Plantation has pleaded guilty to filing $22 million in false refund claims with the federal government.

Internal Revenue Service investigators have charged a Northeast Portland woman of filing as many as 173 fraudulent tax returns claiming more than a $1 million in refunds.