Accounting Today - December 13 2010

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Dec. 13, 2010-Jan. 10, 2011 | accounting today 13

BNA gives users ‘platform of choice’
taxnews

Tax publisher’s expert content available on multiple sites
Proprietary tax research platforms continue to grow despite
the availability of free searches and materials over the Internet,
with all the major publishers of Internet-based research report-
ing growth.

While the needs of many tax preparers begin with just a simple tax manual, many feel the need to research deeper into a complex tax topic — and some are finding that they require more than one research platform.

That’s one reason BNA has made its content “platform-agnostic,” available not only on its own platform, the BNA Tax & Accounting Center, but also on the offerings of Thomson Reuters’ Checkpoint, CCH’s IntelliConnect and ARM, and LexisNexis’ Tax Center.

BNA is probably best known for its tax Port-
folios, first published more than 50 years ago
and recognized as a well-established source
for understanding a tax transaction or topic.
“Our mission continues to be to create the
most valuable content possible for our cus-
tomers,” said BNA president Greg McCaffery.
“A customer’s platform of choice should not
be an obstacle to getting BNA’s essential in-
formation. Combining their own proprietary
content with BNA’s makes their research plat-
forms truly a one-stop resource.”
As more and more practitioners do their

BY ROGER RUSSELL / ARLINGTON, VA.

research online, BNA was challenged with the issue that many practitioners who used both the BNA Portfolios and other publishers’ material in print wanted to access all of their tax research material on a single online service. Based on customer feedback, BNA concluded that offering its content on competitors’ platforms might offer a solution.

The BNA content offered varies by platform. On IntelliConnect, Checkpoint and LexisNexis’ Tax Center for example, content offered includes: U.S. Income Portfolios; Estates Gifts & Trusts Portfolios; Foreign Income Portfolios; Accounting Policy & Practice Portfolios (also available on CCH’s ARM Platform); State Tax Portfolios; Compensation Planning Portfolios; Real Estate Portfolios; Transfer Pricing Portfolios; IRS Practice Adviser; State Tax Research Digest; Daily Tax Report; Transfer Pricing Report; and other reports and journals.

BNA is also available with Intuit’s Lacerte
and ProSeries tax preparation packages. This
offering, ProLine Tax Research, combines
practical guidance and sample client letters
drawn from BNA’s Tax Practice Library, plus a
wide array of state and federal primary source
material. BNA’s flagship Portfolios and Daily
Tax Report are not part of this offering.

IRPAC criticizes 1099 reporting expansion

An Internal Revenue Service advisory committee has issued a report calling for a number of changes in the IRS’s information reporting rules, including the controversial provision in the health care reform bill that mandates expanded 1099 information reporting for businesses.

“The changes enacted by the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act of 2010 raise numerous issues about the utility of the data to be reported and the ability of the IRS to process it,” said an appendix to the 2010 report of the IRS’s Information Reporting Program Advisory Committee. “The expected exponential increase in the number of returns filed, especially paper returns, and the

WASHINGTON, D.C.

hurdles the IRS must overcome in actually
utilizing the return information ..., cry out for
a series of exceptions where the utility of the
data is small relative to the cost to produce
and process it. ... To minimize the significant
burdens these reporting changes will engen-
der, payers should have maximum flexibility
to determine when and whether to report
payees that potentially qualify for an exemp-
tion, even refusing a claim of exemption of
Form W- 9, and to change that determination
at any point.”
The report also suggested that the IRS de-
lay a requirement for companies to report
the cost of health coverage on employees’
W-2s for 2011. The IRS later announced that
it would be deferring the reporting require-
ments until 2012.

IRS DIDN’T FLAG $111.4M
IN ERRONEOUS TAX CREDITS

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The Internal Revenue Service faced challenges last tax season verifying taxpayers’ eligibility for some of the newer stimulus-related tax credits, allowing 125,762 individuals to receive nearly $111.4 million in erroneous Recovery Act-related benefits, according to a new report from the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration. There were nearly 23. 7 million errors on returns through May 28, 2010, an increase of 7. 1 percent from the previous year.

TIGTA found 10,581 individuals claiming $65.6 million in erroneous Homebuyer Credits. IRS compliance efforts did not allow 2,363 of the 10,581 individuals to receive $11.3 million they claimed for the Homebuyer Credit. In addition, TIGTA identified 109,665 individuals erroneously receiving $29.7 million in Making Work Pay and Government Retiree Credits, and 5,345 individuals erroneously claiming $15.6 million in plug-in vehicle credits. TIGTA also found 171 individuals claiming $453,220 in erroneous Nonbusiness Energy Property credits.

In addition, TIGTA identified 2,933 individuals with more than $95.8 million in Qualified Motor Vehicle Tax deductions on individual income tax returns (Form 1040, Schedule A) that exceeded the dollar amount that the IRS uses to identify a potentially erroneous claim.

TIGTA recommended that the IRS should develop processes to track and account for Recovery Act credits claimed on plug-in vehicle credit tax forms and verify whether 8,218 individuals identified as erroneously claiming the First-Time Homebuyer Credit are entitled to claim the credit. The report also recommended that the IRS should ensure that its computer systems are programmed to identify individuals exceeding the maximum allowable Nonbusiness Energy credits. The IRS should also ensure that programming is implemented to identify and freeze the refunds of individuals claiming more than a specific dollar amount in Qualified Motor Vehicle Tax deductions on Schedule A, if the deduction is extended.