Proposed Senate Bill Will Not Include IRS Regulation of Paid Return Preparers

Proposed Senate Bill Will Not Include IRS Regulation of Paid Return Preparers: Today the Joint Committee on Taxation (JCT) released two reports (JCX-27-16 and JCX-28-16) summarizing modifications to the Senate Finance Committee Chairman’s mark of a bill to prevent identity theft and tax refund fraud.  Among other items, the modifications remove the proposal to provide the Justice Department and the IRS with the authority to regulate all paid tax return preparers.  According to JCT estimates, the legislation will have little to no revenue effect.  
Supreme Court Denies Cert in Albemarle Corp.’s Refund Case:  Today the US Supreme Court declined to hear Albemarle Corp.’s challenge to a ruling by the US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit that the company was not entitled to a $412,923 refund attributable to foreign tax credits for taxes allocated outside a ten-year statute of limitations.  Albemarle Corp. argued in its petition for certiorari that under the Supreme Court’s holding in Dixie Pine Prods. Co. v. Commissioner, 320 U.S. 516 (1944), the statute of limitations on its refund claim did not begin to accrue until it had resolved a dispute with Belgian authorities concerning the withholding taxes and 20-year debentures issued by a subsidiary.