Author: Editor

Gone commercial; PTIN-free; seen the light; and other highlights of recent tax cases.Seattle: Real estate owner Steven T. Loo, 69, has been convicted on six counts of tax evasion and six counts of making false returns.Loo had an ownership interest in and operated commercial real estate properties in Washington and California. He hired companies to manage the properties and had the companies send profits from the properties to bank accounts he controlled. Loo spent this money for his benefit and that of his family and friends and re-invested in various businesses that he controlled.He did not declare that income —…

The International Auditing and Assurance Standards Board has posted two new documents to help jurisdictions around the world adopt and implement its recent standard on sustainability assurance.The guidance pertains to International Standard on Sustainability Assurance (ISSA) 5000, General Requirements for Sustainability Assurance Engagements.In response to requests from its constituents, the IAASB has prepared reference extracts containing only the material in ISSA 5000 relevant to limited assurance engagements and, separately, reasonable assurance engagements. The extracts aim to help regulators, standard setters and other stakeholders more easily identify the requirements and application material most relevant to their jurisdictional decisions while not actually…

The Internal Revenue Service doesn’t plan to renew a $500,000 annual contract to repair the self-service kiosks at its walk-in Taxpayer Assistance Centers across the country after a contractor failed to keep many of them in working order and the kiosks were seeing less use by the public.The Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration reported Monday that the IRS now plans to discontinue the kiosk program, which dates back to 2011, and focus instead on other self-service options for taxpayers. The kiosks are computer terminals designed to give taxpayers tools and support to help themselves access IRS services. For instance,…