There must be some serious teeth-grinding going on among Facebook executives today after their product received a lower customer satisfaction rating than the IRS’s e-filing program in the American Customer Satisfaction Index E-Business Report (see the survey results here). Larry Freed, president and CEO of ForeSee Results, which produced the report, noted that “privacy concerns; frequent changes to the website; and commercialization and advertising adversely affect the [Facebook] consumer experience.”

Not what Zuckerberg and Co. want to hear. But if they can get past the sting of being outclassed by the IRS, they can take some comfort in the fact that tax authorities worldwide may soon be among their most enthusiastic customers. more

You might think that, given the country’s notoriously high income tax rates (both personal and corporate), few companies would be knocking on the doors to set up shop in France and domestic businesses might well be lining up to pull out.

Au contraire. Despite its high tax burden, France is among the best countries in the world in which to start or expand a business, according to a story today in IndustryWeek. more

A House subcommittee today is pondering a bill that, at first blush, looks like an arcane, industry-specific tax tweak. But it could have big implications — none of them good — for companies’ property and casualty insurance costs. more

Stories of IRS ineptitude are a dime a dozen, although — admittedly — some are more impressive than others. I’m still reeling from the revelations of a couple of weeks back that the Service paid out on fraudulent claims for the homebuyer tax credit to more than 1,300 prison inmates — and at least 34 IRS employees.

So it’s something of a break from routine to learn that companies can be just as inept in navigating newly minted tax regs as the IRS is in enforcing them. more