In the United States, the term “tax protester” conjures up images of people in three-cornered hats, patriotically waving flags and demanding lower taxes and an end to excessive government spending, all the while accompanied by the sound of fifes and drums.

In the United Kingdom, tax protesters are more likely to favor dressing up as large green beer bottles. And they’re usually to be heard insisting that taxpayers — corporate taxpayers, at least — are paying too little tax, rather than too much.

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A BizTaxBuzz guest blog by Brad J. Monterio, chair of the XBRL Committee for IMA, a worldwide association for accountants and financial professionals working in business.

Extensible business reporting language (XBRL) is a global information standard that makes business and financial information readable by computers easily, accurately, and quickly. It’s already impacting millions of corporate tax departments around the world today. It will affect your company soon, if it hasn’t already. more

A Thomson Reuters poll of tax pros at one of its Web events this week found that fully 87 percent have experienced an increased number of sales tax audits this year. About 70 percent say that their organization is focusing more strategically on indirect taxes, and 64 percent have implemented new programs and processes to remain compliant. more

The deficit reduction plan du jour comes to you courtesy of the Bipartisan Policy Center (BPC) Debt Reduction Task Force, co-chaired by Senator Pete Domenici and Dr. Alice Rivlin. Titled “Restoring America’s Future,” it offers some attractive features for corporate taxpayers (as does the draft plan put forward by the President’s deficit reduction commission last week; see my blog). For a summary of the main business-related proposals, click on MORE below:

Debt Killer? more

The draft proposals issued by the heads of the President’s deficit reduction panel call for scrapping the nation’s current system for taxation of foreign income and replacing it with a territorial system — i.e., one in which income earned outside of U.S. borders is not taxed. I asked international tax expert Shawn Carson, director with accounting firm CBIZ MHM, for his take on the proposals.

BizTaxBuzz: Just how complex does the current “worldwide” system get?

Shawn Carson: The basic premise is simple: Foreign companies pay U.S. tax if, and only if, they do business in the U.S. or receive income from the United States. U.S. shareholders of foreign companies, including U.S. multinationals with foreign subsidiaries, pay tax when they receive a dividend from them. U.S. ‘C’ corporations get a credit for any foreign tax paid by a foreign company, but U.S. individuals, partnerships, LLCs, and S corporations don’t. more