A former Durant, Miss., resident has pleaded guilty to filing more than 550 tax returns which sought more than $3.5 million in undeserved refunds. Teresa C. Chism also failed to file her own individual income tax returns for tax years 2013 through 2015 even though she earned more than $100,000 during that period.

Proposed regulations have been issued for a provision which allows many owners of sole proprietorships, partnerships, trusts and S corporations to deduct 20 percent of their qualified business income. The Internal Revenue Service has proposed regulations for the Section 199A deduction, also referred to as the deduction for qualified business income was created by the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act.

Avalara is testing a software application that will enable accounting firms to prepare and file sales and use tax returns for clients. The test was announced this week by CEO Scott McFarlane as the company reported the first quarterly financial results as a public company since going public in June.