The Treasury Department's inspector general for tax administration has estimated that the Internal Revenue Service issued between $11.6 billion and $13.6 billion in improper payments through its Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) program for the fiscal year ended 2012. The EITC is a welfare program that is supposed to help low income families or individuals through a ref [...]

The purpose of this quarterly California Tax Legislative update is to provide our clients and prospective clients with timely and meaningful tax legislative updates that will affect both their personal and businesses taxes. While the First Quarter of 2013 was considerably slower from a legislative perspective than the Fourth Quarter of 2012, California continued on i [...]

By: Richard Ruvelson Many tax-exempt organizations are not aware of the fact that they may be entitled to claim credits for excise taxes paid for certain on-road and off-road vehicle use. For federal purposes, gasoline and aviation gasoline purchases may qualify for the credit. Ultimate purchasers of gasoline for uses including the following qualify: Off-highway bu [...]

The purpose of this quarterly California Tax Legislative update is to provide our clients and prospective clients with timely and meaningful tax legislative updates that will affect both their personal and businesses taxes.While the First Quarter of 2013 was considerably slower from a legislative perspective then the Fourth Quarter of 2012, California continued on its [...]

California’s passage of Proposition 39 combined with California’s “doing business “ requirement for income/franchise tax purposes creates a potential tax compliance and reporting issue for businesses based outside of California that are deriving income from California sources. This tax publication includes information on the following: “Doing Business” in California [...]

The United States Treasury recently released the so-called "Green Book," which is the Administration's Fiscal Year 2014 Revenue Proposals. The Green Book is the President's wish-list of tax changes, and as usual, this year's wish-list is a cornucopia of tax proposals - past and present. The proposals include tax changes for businesses and individuals. This tax alert [...]

The United States Treasury recently released the so-called “Green Book,” which is the Administration’s Fiscal Year 2014 Revenue Proposals. The Green Book is the President’s wish-list of tax changes, and as usual, this year’s wish-list is a cornucopia of tax proposals – past and present. The proposals include tax changes for businesses and ind [...]

I thought I’d share some key takeaways from a recent presentation I attended on the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. Most organizations have not… Determined the expected financial impact of health care reform Modeled scenarios to determine the cost-benefit of offering or not offering benefits to employees Thought about the “look back” period and how to [...]

California residents most likely have noticed that California sales tax has been charged by online retailers such as Amazon.com recently. After much debate and negotiation with the State of California on whether the state’s sales tax collection rules applied to Amazon’s business model, Amazon agreed to collect sales tax from California customers beginning in September [...]

Volunteers increase capacity, are cost effective and extend a nonprofit’s reach. They have value, even though the value of their services may not meet the criteria for recognition in financial statements. The Independent Sector has released the new value of volunteer time - $22.14 per hour for 2012. This represents an increase of 35 cents from 2011. The value of a vol [...]