The Internal Revenue Service announced Thursday the optional standard mileage rates to use for 2001 in computing the deductible costs of operating an automobile for business, charitable, medical or moving expense purposes.The amounts for the various deductible costs for use of a car will be effective January 1, 2001 and are as follows:The standard mileage rate for the cost of operating a car is 34.5 cents a mile for all business miles driven.

Anyone who has bought goods or services over the Internet, or is participating in e-Commerce themselves, knows how loud the tax man is knocking on the door of cyberspace to begin collecting tax. However, coming up with a viable method that can be collected, both intrastate and interstate, has been difficult at best.Wisconsin is one of four states that have agreed to participate in a pilot project to electronically charge tax.

The IRS has raised the standard mileage rates, effective January 1, 2001.The new rates are 34.5 cents per mile (increased from 32.5 cents per mile) for business mileage, and 12 cents per mile (increased from 10 cents per mile) for medical and moving mileage.The rate for mileage driven for charitable purposes will remain at 14 cents per mile.The reason for the large increase is due to the rise in gasoline prices. The information was published in IRS Revenue Procedure 2000-48.

IRS Commissioner Charles Rossotti is looking to become Santa Claus, as the IRS initiates its search for over 90,000 taxpayers who are due over $67 million in refunds this year.The search is an annual exercise by the IRS, prompted primarily by people changing addresses without informing the proper authorities."This is one case where we're more than happy to pass the buck," says IRS Commissioner Rossotti. Over 15,000 undelivered refunds are due to residents of California, followed by 8,000+ each for New York, Florida and Texas.

The Senate and House chambers are empty this week, as members of Congress head for home for a brief visit with their constituencies before Tuesday's election. Both groups left unfinished business behind in Washington, and will return next week to try to wrap up the FSC (Foreign Sales Corporation) bill, and some miscellaneous spending and tax bills.

With the presidential election less than two weeks away, it seems that both candidates may have overlooked a significant section of the population - single adults, 25 to 64 years old.The realization that Governor George W. Bush and Vice President Al Gore are concentrating their tax-break strategies on working families and the elderly became evident during last week's debate in which a young woman asked a question during the town hall meeting pertaining to tax breaks for her demographic set.Neither candidates respond very well.

Frequent-flier miles are so widespread today that they can almost seem like another form of money. Frequent-flier mile awards have even become an issue in some divorce and estate cases. The federal government has considered taxing frequent-flier miles.After careful thought and research, the IRS studied the matter and decided the expense of monitoring and enforcing a tax on frequent-flier miles would be too much of an expense for the government.

Fortune magazine has put together an insightful look at 75 years of Taxation with a new timeline.Beginning with the Revenue Act of 1926 and ending with Treasury Secretary Lawrence Summers' crackdown on corporate tax shelters in 2000, the timeline puts all taxation highlights in order and with brief descriptions.A chart of tax revenue collected also is included; in 1930, the figure was $3 million, compared to almost $2 billion in 2000!

The new Automated Tax Return from Intuit, maker of TurboTax, will electronically import information from the most common tax forms: W-2 (Wage and Tax Statement), 1099-INT (Interest Income), 1099-DIV (Dividend Income), and 1099B (Broker transactions). This information will be placed directly on the tax return without the preparer having to enter any information on the forms.Tax information will be provided by participating payroll and ebusiness services including Ceridian, Fidelity Investments, PeopleSoft, ProBusiness, Salomon Smith Barney, TD Waterhouse, T.