WASHINGTON —Intuit's Phil Poirier has been elected chairman of the Electronic Tax Administration Advisory Committee following the appointment of seven new committee members by the Internal Revenue Service. Poirier is VP Government in Intuit's Consumer Division.

Jackson Hewitt Tax Service said today that it is unlikely to find a lender to fund half of its refund anticipation loan business for the upcoming tax season before a bank-imposed deadline. However, while failure to do so would constitute a default on its $375 million credit facility, the tax preparation company received a week extension on a key deadline and believes it will be let off the hook for default.

The Internal Revenue Service should postpone the imposition of new requirements for non-signing tax preparers because of a lack of clarity and guidance regarding the term "preparer", according to the the Internal Revenue Service Advisory Council. The body also urged that former IRS employees not be automatically granted Enrolled Agent status. These were among a broad range of recommendations made as part of the IRSAC's annual report.

WASHINGTON — Nearly 99 million individuals efiled their federal income tax returns electronically during 2010, a 3-percent increase from the prior year. That's out of a total of 141.5 returns filed to date this year, according to the Internal Revenue Service. With mandates for efiling kicking in next year, that rate seems likely to increase.