After a January announcement that shocked many tax preparers and professionals , the IRS has announced an extension to the comment period for a proposal that would change reporting requirements for uncertain tax positions. The proposed changes would require a business with more than $10 million in assets to disclose any uncertain tax positions with a “few sentences” on the nature of each position. In response to the large number of requests, the comments period will continue until June 1st this year. After that time, the schedule will be implemented for both calendar year 2010 and fiscal years beginning in 2010. The IRS intends these changes to. Read More.

IRS Commissioner Shulman shocked most tax preparers and professionals last week at a New York State Bar Association Tax Section Meeting when he proposed that businesses should be required to provide detailed information in their tax returns regarding uncertain tax positions taken on their returns. Under the Commissioner’s proposal , taxpayers would be required to provide a “few sentences” of information explaining the nature of each uncertain tax position, and taxpayers who fail to disclose these “uncertain tax positions” would be subject to significant penalties. If it sounds like the Commissioner is asking taxpayers to do the IRS’s job for them, you are at least partially right. The. Read More.