Accounting Today

Inside Views

• Accounting Firm M&A Makes a Comeback

  March 14, 2013

  The American Institute of CPAs’ Private Companies Practice Section released the results of its 2012 PCPS Succession Survey not long ago, and it provides us with data from nearly 1,000 firms across the U.S. on how they are dealing (or not) with succession.

• 600,000+ Tax Refunds Delayed by Education Credit Glitch

  March 13, 2013

  The Internal Revenue Service has found that changes in Form 8863, Education Credits, are delaying more than 600,000 tax returns, many of which appear to come from H&R Block.

• IRS Will Penalize Overly Aggressive Positions in Cost Segregation Studies

  March 12, 2013

  The IRS recently made it clear that even if taxpayers engage a third party to perform a cost segregation analysis, they cannot avoid penalties for aggressive positions taken in the cost segregation report.

• Survival Tips for a Shortened Busy Season

  March 7, 2013

  Like most of you, I’ve already experienced my fair share of stress this busy season, and it has barely begun. In addition to the shortened filing period, many practitioners are facing significant software glitches. Those are tough challenges for firms like my own, which consists of myself, a seasonal employee and an administrative person.

• Get Your Worker Reclassification Relief While It Lasts

  March 7, 2013

  Worker classification has long been an area only vaguely understood by many employers. The law is not only not settled, it’s unclear, going all the way back to the common law of England.

• Taxes Become More Global in Scope

  March 6, 2013

  Taxes are increasingly spreading beyond national and state borders to make more of a global impact, affecting economic activity across the world.

• Mentoring Programs for CPAs

  March 4, 2013

  I recently had the interesting task of facilitating a group discussion on the topic of mentoring programs among representatives of CPA firms throughout the U.S. The participants were members of the Human Resources Practice Group of BKR International, an association that has more than 150 independent accounting and business advisory firms worldwide.

• Business Execs Lower Expectations for Tax Reform

  March 1, 2013

  The number one concern of leading business tax executives for the year ahead is that in light of the current political and fiscal environment, Congress will enact revenue offsets to fund other legislative initiatives rather than make the U.S. tax system more competitive.

• New Ways to Minimize Income Taxes for Estates, Trusts and Beneficiaries

  February 28, 2013

  Will Rogers has been quoted as saying, “The only difference between death and taxes is that death doesn’t get worse every time Congress meets.” Earlier this year, Congress passed the American Taxpayer Relief Act of 2012, which may have prevented us from falling off the fiscal cliff, but further complicated the already complex world of income taxation of estates and trusts.

• Letting the Sequester Fester

  February 27, 2013

  Less than two months ago Washington escaped from the doomsday scenario of the looming “fiscal cliff.” Now it faces the threat of the less colorfully named “sequester” or “sequestration,” depending on who’s talking about it, but somehow the dire warnings of impending disaster are beginning to sound unconvincing.

• Top 10 Signs You Need to Get Back into the Market

  February 26, 2013

  It doesn’t matter if you are an accountant, attorney, banker, entrepreneur or in which business, company, industry or profession you toil.

• Providing Real Financial Services: How to Get There

  February 25, 2013

  For years, you’ve been hearing that you should include financial services among your tax or accounting practice’s service offerings.

• Washington and Lincoln: Founding Fathers of Taxes?

  February 22, 2013

  As Presidents’ Day Week winds down, it seems logical to pay a little attention to Presidents Washington and Lincoln, especially their wisdom and the positions they held on a number of the issues they faced in their time.

• CPAs as a Center of Influence—The New Paradigm

  February 21, 2013

  CPAs have long been sought after as Centers of Influence, or COIs, by members of the financial services profession for many years.

• A New Affliction: Post-Traumatic Gift Disorder

  February 20, 2013

  In my consulting activity the last few months of 2012, I saw the emerging symptoms of a new disorder in many family business owners: Post-Traumatic Gift Disorder, or PTGD.

• We Need True Tax Reform

  February 15, 2013

  There is no doubt that the current U.S. Tax Code needs to be seriously reformed. It has grown to become a convoluted mess.

• Why Playing the SLOTS Can Be Dangerous for Accountants

  February 15, 2013

  Last time I played the slots, I lost a small sum of money. But for several accountants and tax lawyers, playing with slots could have cost them significant fines and incarceration.

• A Major IRS Estate Tax Loss

  February 14, 2013

  U.S. Tax Court Judge Elizabeth Paris handed the taxpayers a victory last Thursday involving a powerful estate tax planning tool: private annuities.

• Should You Hire or Outsource for Marketing Assistance?

  February 13, 2013

  The question of outsourcing or hiring to meet your firm’s marketing needs depends on a variety of factors. And the answer may vary at different times even within the same firm.

• Six Ways to Profit from the Succession-Planning Boom

  February 12, 2013

  Seven in 10 business owners in the United States expect to exit their company in the next 10 years, according to research from SellabilityScore.com. When we asked business owners who they would turn to for advice on selling, 64 percent said they would seek the advice of their accountant, thus ranking the CPA as the most trusted professional among all of the advisor categories we measured.