The Internal Revenue Service has launched an online application to assist taxpayers with balance inquiries. Available on IRS.gov, the tool enables them to view account balances, will include amounts they owe for tax, penalties and interest.

A tax preparer based in Stillwell, Kan., has been sentenced to 48 months in prison for using stolen client identities to obtain income tax refunds. Richard Drake was convicted of using the IDs to receive more than $2 million in refunds in clients' names, which he deposited into his own accounts.

The Alternative Minimum Tax should be repealed for simplicity and transparency, the American Institute of CPAs' Tax Executive Committee said recently. That provision was one of several the committee made for the next Congress in order to reform tax policy.

A federal court has barred Walner Gachette, the franchisor for the former LBS Tax Services chain, from preparing tax returns for others. A $5-million judgment was also entered against the man who ran the nation's fourth-largest tax store chain until it was shut down by federal action for pervasive fraud and charging some customers $999 for preparing an individual tax return.