The work of helping consumers overwhelmed by their debt but who want to avoid bankruptcy has traditionally fallen to agencies that received heavy support from creditors. A new kind of consumer credit counseling agency (CCA) has arisen in recent years with a higher profile that even includes advertising on cable television and radio. These agencies focus on debt management programs that negotiate lower interest rates and accelerated payback programs for their clients, notes lawyer Barnaby W. Zall, of counsel to Weinberg & Jacobs LLP in Rockville, Maryland. The IRS has taken a close look at the tax-exempt status of these agencies and decided that they are the "bad boys" of the tax-exempt world. But Zall notes that, aside from a few high-profile bad apples, CCAs provide a service to consumers that was being left undone with the traditional credit counseling agencies that depend on funding from the largest creditors. In the Tax-Exempt Advisor, Zall argues for restraint in regulating this new consumer helper. The circumstance of CCAs could also play out on a larger stage of IRS scrutiny of tax-exempt organizations.

 One of the most fertile grounds for state tax audit assessments of companies that do business in more than one state is the simple drop shipment. A simple business transaction, the drop shipment can become a nightmare of complexity from a sales and use tax standpoint. Many states, hungry for revenue, will hold a drop shipper responsible for taxes on items shipped into their jurisdiction even if the actual seller is not required to collect taxes on that sale. Some states require that manufacturers and distributors remit tax on the sale price of the drop shipped items—information the drop shipper may not be privy to since its customer made the actual sale and is not likely to want the manufacturer or distributor to know what it is selling items for. Into these murky waters CCH's editors for Sales & Use Tax Alert waded with noted sales tax expert Diane Yetter. Together, they created and compiled a survey of states using specific scenarios to learn what the exact policy of states would be on drop shipments. The scenarios were chosen for their real-world nature and all of the answers were reviewed by Yetter and, in some cases sent back for clarification by the states. In the August 1 issue of Sales & Use Tax Alert, CCH's editors provide an executive summary of the results of this survey, which is printed in full in the new book from CCH, Drop Shipments: Taxation, Compliance and Planning.

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While the market in recent years has many investors doubtful, stock investments are still the way most people plan to increase their wealth. That strategy has been aided by the passage of the Jobs and Growth Tax Relief Reconciliation Act last year. There are new tax treatments that make stock investments work harder to build wealth, beginning with the reduced capital gains tax rates. That is further enhanced by a similar reduced tax treatment for dividends. Investment tax expert Seth Hammer walks you through the ins and outs of tax planning for stock investments—including mutual funds, exchange traded funds, qualifying small business stocks, and other options. He looks specifically at how taxes can play into investment decisions and gives numerous clear-cut examples of how to work through the decisions that have to be made when choosing investments.

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