The Joint Committee on Taxation has released Description of the Tax Technical Corrections Act Of 2004 (JCX-70-04).        

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The Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration recently conducted an audit of the Volunteer Income Tax Assistance (VITA) Program. The 38-page audit, Improvements Are Needed to Ensure Tax Returns Are Prepared Correctly at Internal Revenue Service Volunteer Income Tax Assistance Sites (2004-40-154), has this disturbing conclusion: In an attempt to have tax returns prepared, from…

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The Congressional Budget Office has released an 11-page Cost Estimate of H.R. 4520, the American Jobs Creation Act of 2004. Here is the Summary: H.R. 4520 repeals the exclusion for a portion of income earned by exporters (so-called extraterritorial income), allows a deduction for income attributable to production in the United States, alters numerous other…

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The IRS Statistics of Income Division has released two new data sets: • Individual Income Tax Return Statistics by State (2002) • Individual Income Tax Return Statistics by Size of AGI (2002). Among the many fascinating tables are: Average Tax Rate ……………..Top 1%……Top 5%……Top 10%……Top 25%…..Top 50% 1986……..33.13%…….25.68%…….22.64%…….18.72%…….16.32% 1989……..23.34%…….20.71%…….18.77%…….16.27%…….14.53% 1992……..25.05%…….21.19%…….19.13%…….16.25%…….14.44% 1995……..28.73%…….23.53%…….20.97%…….17.58%…….15.47% 1998……..27.12%…….23.63%…….21.42%…….18.16%…….16.00% 2000……..27.45%…….24.42%…….22.34%…….19.09%…….16.43% 2001……..27.50%…….23.68%…….21.41%…….18.06%…….15.85% 2002……..27.25%…….22.95%…….20.51%…….16.99%…….14.66%…

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The just-released Statistics of Income Bulletin (Summer 2004) includes Foreign-Controlled Domestic Corporations, 2001, by James Hobbs (SOI). Here is the opening: For Tax Year 2001, the 60,618 domestic corporations each “controlled” by a foreign “person generated $2.5 trillion of total receipts and reported $6.5 trillion of total assets on income tax returns filed with the…

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The just-released Statistics of Income Bulletin (Summer 2004) includes Federal Estate Tax Returns Filed for Nonresident Aliens, 2001 and 2002, by Darien Berkowitz Jacobson (SOI). Here is the summary: The number of nonresident alien decedents whose estates filed a regular Form 706NA was 139 in 2001 and 137 in 2002. The total gross estate in…

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The just-released Statistics of Income Bulletin (Summer 2004) includes Sole Proprietorship Returns, 2002, by Kevin Pierce (SOI) & Michael Parisi (SOI). Here is the opening: Nonfarm sole proprietorship profits increased 1.7% for Tax Year 2002 to $221.1 billion. While a majority of the principal sole proprietorship industrial sectors reported increased profits, a few sectors reported…

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The monthly update of the 119-page Directory of Attorneys in the IRS Chief Counsel’s Office, arranged by Internal Revenue Code Section and Subject Matter, is available on the Tax Analysts’ web site.

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The just-released Statistics of Income Bulletin (Summer 2004) includes High-Income Tax Returns for 2001, by Brian Balkovic (SOI). Here is the opening: The Tax Reform Act of 1976 requires annual publication of data on individual income tax returns reporting income of $200,000 or more, including the number of such returns reporting no income tax liability…

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Tuesday, October 5, 2004 The just-released Statistics of Income Bulletin (Summer 2004) includes Corporation Income Tax Returns, 2001, by Patrice Treubert (SOI). Here is the opening: Corporate pretax profits, or net income (less deficit), reported on income tax returns for 2001 declined significantly from 2000 levels, decreasing 34.9% from $927.5 billion for 2000 to $603.6…

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Monday, October 4, 2004 The just-released Statistics of Income Bulletin (Summer 2004) includes Controlled Foreign Corporations, 2000, by Lee Mahony (SOI) & Jason Wenrich (SOI). Here is the opening: For Tax Year 2000, the 7,500 largest foreign corporations controlled by large U.S. multinational corporations held $4.4 trillion in assets and reported receipts of $2.2 trillion.…

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Sunday, September 26, 2004 The Senate Committee on Foreign Relations held a hearing Friday on tax treaties with Barbados and the Netherlands. Testifying at the hearing were: • Barbara Angus, International Tax Counsel, Office of Tax Counsel, Treasury Department • George Yin, Chief of Staff, Joint Committee on Taxation • William Reinsch, President, National Foreign…

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Friday, September 17, 2004 The Joint Committee on Taxation has released explanations of the protocols to the proposed tax treaties with Barbados (JCX-55-04) and the Netherlands (JCX-54-04), scheduled for a Senate Committee on Foreign Relations hearing on September 24, 2004. Testifying at the hearing will be: • Barbara Angus, International Tax Counsel, Office of Tax…

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Friday, August 27, 2004 The just-released Statistics of Income Bulletin (Spring 2004) includes Individual Income Tax Rates and Shares, 2001, by David Campbell (SOI) & Michael Parisi (SOI). Here is the abstract: This report features information on individual income tax rates and shares for tax year 2001. There were 130.3 million individual tax returns, of…

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Thursday, August 26, 2004 The just-released Statistics of Income Bulletin (Spring 2004) includes Use of the Federal Empowerment Zone Employment Credit for Tax Year 1997: Who Claims What?, by Andrew Bershadker (Office of Tax Analysis) & Edith Brashares (Horst Frisch, Inc.). Here is the abstract: For Tax Year 1997, there were 1,168 individual income tax…

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Tuesday, August 24, 2004 The SOI has released 12 tables with data from 2002 partnership tax returns.

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Wednesday, August 18, 2004 The just-released Statistics of Income Bulletin (Spring 2004) includes Unrelated Business Income Tax Returns, 2000, with a Decade in Review, 1991-2000, by Margaret Riley (SOI). Here is the abstract: Nonprofit organizations filed an estimated 38,567 Forms 990-T, Exempt Organization Business Income Tax Returns, for Tax Year 2000. Overall, organizations reporting unrelated…

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Tuesday, August 17, 2004 The just-released Statistics of Income Bulletin (Spring 2004) includes Selected Income and Tax Items from Inflation-Indexed Individual Tax Returns, 1990-2001, by Michael Strudler (SOI) & Michael Parisi (SOI). Here is the abstract: Inflation-adjusted individual income tax data are presented by 11 income classes, including income classes of $10 million or more…

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Monday, August 16, 2004 The just-released Statistics of Income Bulletin (Spring 2004) includes S Corporation Returns, 2001, by Kelly Bennett (SOI). Here is the abstract: A total of nearly 3 million S corporation returns were filed for Tax Year 2001, an increase of over 4.4 percent from Tax Year 2000. S corporations continue to be…

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Sunday, August 15, 2004 The just-released Statistics of Income Bulletin (Spring 2004) includes Interest-Charge Domestic International Sales Corporations, 2000, by Cynthia Belmonte (SOI). Here is the abstract: IC-DISC tax provisions provide limited incentives to small U.S. exporters. IC-DISC’s filed 727 income tax returns for 2000. Export gross receipts were $4.7 billion, tax-deferred IC-DISC income reported…

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Thursday, August 12, 2004 The SOI has released nine pages of data from estate tax returns filed in 2002: Table 1.–Estate Tax Returns Filed in 2002: Gross Estate by Type of Property, Deductions, Taxable Estate, Estate Tax and Tax Credits, by Size of Gross Estate

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Thursday, August 12, 2004 The just-released Statistics of Income Bulletin (Spring 2004) includes Individual Foreign-Earned Income and Foreign Tax Credit, 2001, by Jeff Curry (SOI) & Maureen Keenan Kahr (SOI). Here is the abstract: U.S. taxpayers living abroad reported $27.4 billion in foreign-earned income for 2001. They filed 294,763 individual income tax returns, an increase…

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Thursday, August 5, 2004 The Congressional Budget Office has released The Estate Tax and Charitable Giving. Here is the summary of the 20-page report: This paper by the Congressional Budget Office (CBO), prepared at the request of the Ranking Member of the Senate Finance Committee, examines the effect that changing the estate tax would have…

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Tuesday, August 3, 2004 Douglas Holtz-Eakin, Director of the Congressional Budget Office, testified on The Tax Code’s Impact on the Reliability of Revenue Projections before the House Committee on the Budget. Here is the conclusion: Budget planning is aided by accurate projections of receipts, but the current U.S. tax code has several features that make…

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Tuesday, August 3, 2004 The just-released Statistics of Income Bulletin (Spring 2004) includes Accumulation and Distribution of Individual Retirement Arrangements, 2000 by Peter Sailer (SOI) & Sarah Nutter (George Mason). Here is the abstract: For the first time, the Bulletin takes a detailed look at individual retirement arrangements. At the end of 2000, 46.3 million…

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