Senators Charles Grassley (R-IA) and Max Baucus (D-MT) have introduced legislation to completely repeal the Alternative Minimum Tax, without requiring any offset of tax revenue from another source. Other lawmakers are mulling the possibility of trading the revenue from the AMT for a change in another area of individual income tax that would result in replacing the AMT revenue.The U.S.

Taxes were the leading concern of business owners during the second quarter of 2007 replacing health care which previously was cited as being the single greatest issue impacting small businesses according to the latest Small Business Research Board (SBRB) study released this week. Business owners in the U. S. responding to the nationwide poll co-sponsored by International Profit Associates (IPA) said taxes were closely followed by overall economic conditions and energy / fuel costs as key concerns affecting small businesses during the current quarter.

Ohio residents continue to wait for tax refunds as the state scrambles to get checks in the mail. The Ohio Department of Taxation bought new optical scanners this year with the intention of speeding up tax refund processing, but instead the state is running behind last year in sending out refund checks.There are still approximately 160,000 tax returns waiting to be processed, according to a tax department spokesman, John Kohlstrand.

The U.S. Supreme Court announced on Monday it would not hear two cases that could have long-ranging effects on the nexus rules followed by state taxing authorities. The cases both involved situations where states assessed income and franchise taxes to companies with no physical presence in the state.In West Virginia, Bank of America's FIA Card Services, formerly MBNA, was attempting to seek a refund of $460,000 in income and franchise taxes assessed by the state.

While the memory of filing tax returns seems all too fresh in our minds, the Internal Revenue Service has already begun to prepare for the upcoming tax filing season. The IRS has again selected CCH to provide the sales tax data for use by all taxpayers who file a 1040 tax return. This marks the third consecutive year that CCH has been chosen by the IRS as its selected provider of sales tax information. CCH, a Wolters Kluwer business, is a leading provider of tax information, software and services (www.CCHGroup.com).

The Internal Revenue Service recommends that employers, payers and their agents begin using a new, improved version of the agent appointment form immediately, to avoid delays in having the IRS approve the agent appointments.All versions prior to the May 2007 form are now obsolete.Form 2678, Employer/Payer Appointment of Agent, authorizes an agent to file tax returns and deposit and pay employment or other withholding taxes on an employer or payer's behalf.

More than half of working dads (59 percent) would not take paternity leave if it were offered, according to the latest Workplace Insights survey by Adecco USA and just in time for Father's Day. Among those who would not take paternity leave, reasons cited include: fear it would harm their career (31 percent); being too busy at work to be away for an extended period of time off (28 percent) and being depended on too much by co-workers and clients (28 percent).

Moving to curb abuse of this year's one-time telephone excise tax refund program, the Justice Department and the Internal Revenue Service obtained federal indictments this spring against tax preparers who allegedly filed thousands of dollars in fraudulent refund claims.In recent weeks, the alleged refund schemes involving preparers in Miami, Fla., Norcross, Ga., Dallas, Texas, and Riverside, Calif., led to federal indictments. This week, the defendant in the Miami case pled guilty to one count of making and presenting fraudulent federal income tax refund claims to the IRS.

The federal government has broadened the scope of an investigation into charges that certain franchisees of Jackson Hewitt Tax Services Inc. helped prepare fraudulent tax returns during the 2006 tax filing season. More than 125 offices of the company have been accused by the Justice Department of knowingly filing false tax returns and claiming refunds that resulted from the use of phony W-2 forms and fictitious deductions. The returns were filed on behalf of middle- and low-income people.