Anti-Tax Shelter Provisions of American Jobs Creation Act of 2004 Expand Reporting Rules for Taxpayers and Advisors, Substantially Increase Penalties for Non-Compliance and Provide IRS with Additional Sanction Authority.

Mondaq Business Briefing, November, 2004

The American Jobs Creation Act of 2004 (the "Act") was signed into law by President Bush on October 22, 2004. Among many significant changes to the Internal Revenue Code (the "Code"), the Act adopts expanded anti-tax shelter reporting rules, and imposes substantially increased penalties for non-compliance, which will affect both taxpayers and their advisors.

Highlights

The major changes made by the Act do the following:

Impose substantial new penalties on taxpayers who fail to report required information on their income tax returns with respect to "reportable transactions" in which they participate, or who have tax understatements attributable to reportable transactions.

Require taxpayers that are SEC reporting companies (and their...