Talk on the street is that the IRS is easing off on the number of audits performed. Does this mean you can go ahead and stretch the truth on your tax return and not worry about calling attention to yourself? Probably not. Call it fate, consider the possibility that maybe it's simply your turn, or keep in mind the fact that one reason the IRS can streamline its workforce is that computers are getting better at doing the job of picking out irregularities.Whatever the reason, the possibility exists that your tax return may be selected for an audit.

Beginning in June, the U.S. Tax Court's Web site will include docket sheets for almost all cases since May 1986.Information provided on the docket sheets will include names and addresses of petitioners and counsel, index of filings for each case and court actions."This service is something that I believe the bar has long awaited and should prove to be a useful tool to those who appear before us," said Chief Judge Thomas B. Wells.

Critics of the Internal Revenue Service have complained that the IRS employees provide incorrect answers on how to comply with the tax code.

The Department of Labor has prepared a new guide, "The Troubleshooter's Guide to Filing the ERISA Annual Report (5500)", which should provide answers to most questions about preparing and filing the annual ERISA forms.The publication focuses on the changes in reporting under the ERISA Filing Acceptance System (EFAST) and how to avoid reporting errors most frequently made by filers.The Labor Department's Pension and Welfare Benefits Administration (PWBA), has made a toll-free telephone number available t

Each year the Tax Foundation, a nonprofit organization based in Washington, D.C., publishes its calculation of what it calls Tax Freedom Day. Tax Freedom Day is the day on which, if you were to give every dollar you had earned since January 1 to the government, you would finally have paid all of your income taxes and the rest of the money you earn would be yours to do with as you see fit.The official Tax Freedom Day this year, based on the average taxpayer paying federal and state income taxes, was May 3, 2001.

About a dozen agents of the California Franchise Tax Board, armed with guns and accompanied by local police, raided the office and personal home of Nick and Trina Vu Jesson, the owners of No Time Delay Electronics, a Huntington Beach, California company. The company reportedly has chosen not to withhold taxes from workers' paychecks.The company, also known as N.T.D. Electronics, was one of several businesses identified last November by The New York Times as participating in a tax protest movement.

As part of its Industry Issue Resolution Pilot Program, the IRS has announced it will focus on the following seven areas:Golf course construction costsClarification of the conformity election by banks for bad debtsDemonstrator vehicles provided for employee useReporting of payments to employees who own heavy equipment used by their employersTreatment of restaurant smallwares packagesDetermination of recoverable reserves of oil and gas for cost depletion purposesLocal impact fees associated with low income housing tax credit property

Congress's Joint Committee on Taxation has presented the legislative bodies with a report, produced over the past 18 months, highlighting 150 recommendations for simplification of the Tax Code.Among the recommendations noted were:Repeal of the alternative minimum taxstandardization of the definition of "dependent child" for various benefitselimination of the phase-outs of personal exemptions and itemized deductions streamlining the taxation of Social Security benefitseliminating income ceilings for deductible and Roth IRAsreturning to the

The House Committee on Education and Workforce has approved a retirement security bill, the tax aspects of which met with approval from the Ways and Means Committee earlier this week.The Comprehensive Retirement Security and Pension Reform Act of 2001, H.R. 10, will go before the entire House the week of April 30.