The Australian Taxation Office (ATO) has prepared its own special welcome for participants in next month's Olympic Games - a special unit has been set up to claim its share of any Olympic earnings.ATO Olympics project director Peter Rowe told Agence France Presse that any money earned by winning competitors would be taxed in Australia, regardless of where the money was paid.

The IRS appeals division has gotten a facelift. As part of the complete IRS reorganization, the appeals division will now work more closely with the new IRS operating divisions and will arm appeals officers with greater settlement authority.National Appeals Chief Daniel Black is trying to organize as many as 300 officers who will be handling the onslaught of appeals that has been bottlenecking the Service since a 1998 ruling gave more taxpayers the right to a hearing before an appeals officer in certain collection actions.

The IRS has established a goal of 80% for the amount of tax returns it hopes will be filed electronically by the year 2007.

Based on sources, The New York Times reports that several Big 5 firms are proposing unique tax shelters to clients that do not make the grade. The shelters create artificial tax losses by investing in partnerships.The Treasury Department did not release the names of the firms that are suspect, and could not be sure of which firms even proposed the shelters.

President Clinton issued his long-promised veto on Saturday and dashed the hopes of married couples everywhere who were hoping for a tax cut this year. In a confusing message, Clinton stated first that the elimination of the marriage tax penalty would take too much revenue away from the government and more than use up the federal surplus about which we keep hearing so much.Upon closer examination, it is clear than Clinton believes no such thing.

The IRS has announced the new Agency-Wide Shared Services group, which is providing support for IRS workers nationwide. Services covered by this new group will include administration in the areas of procurement, facilities, real estate, personnel, and Equal Opportunity and diversity issues.By taking some administrative duties out of the hands of IRS offices around the country, the remote workers will be able to provide more concentrated services to taxpayers.The AWSS is part of the IRS reorganization, which is intended to bring more specialized services to taxpayers.

Separating Death and Taxesby Michael B. Allmon, CPAThe U.S. Congress, encouraged by popular sentiment, tried to separate death and taxes by voting to repeal the estate tax in July.

Last week's vote to send tax cut legislation for married couples to the White House for consideration has fueled yet another battle between Democrats and Republicans in a very important election year.Democrats who voted against ending the marriage tax penalty are concerned that the passing of the tax cut will use up all of the projected 10-year, $1.8 trillion surplus.

The week in Washington was anything but dull. Nearly every day we were presented with a new, more glorious bill and a gaggle of vote-hungry representatives and senators eager to vote 'yea.' There isn't a single issue here that won't please most of the American public - so why is it so likely that so few of these measures will actually make it into law?Marriage Tax Penalty. There are bizarre rules in the Internal Revenue Code that make it possible for two people to earn the same income at the same job but pay vastly different income tax on that income due to their marital status.