WebCPA Staff

Three-quarters of the 500 accounting professors polled in a recent survey think International Financial Reporting Standards need to be immediately incorporated into U.S. accounting curricula, and nearly half believe the U.S. should transition to IFRS to remain competitive.

The Treasury Department’s Inspector General for Tax Administration has released a report recommending that the IRS seek mandatory electronic filing of individual tax returns by paid preparers, and legislation is being readied to write such a requirement into law.

The State of Minnesota has decided to end its income tax reciprocity program with Wisconsin, effective Jan. 1, 2010.

Online retailer Overstock.com said it has received a notice from the SEC informing the company that it is again under investigation for its financial restatements.

Accounting firms Chilton & Medley and Mountjoy & Bressler plan to combine into one of the largest firms in Louisville, Ky.

CCH has integrated its ProSystem fx Tax software with TaxScripts Inc.’s TaxScripts Pro to automate IRS transcript requests and disclosure authorization submissions.

Thomson Reuters’ Tax & Accounting business has upgraded its TaxStream Provision software to help corporate tax departments with the transition to International Financial Reporting Standards.

The Internal Revenue Service has again extended the deadline for taxpayers to make voluntary disclosures of the unreported income they have stashed in hidden offshore accounts, but warned this would be the final extension.

Business consulting and internal audit firm Protiviti Inc said it has formed an advisory board to assist its clients with navigating the unstable economic and regulatory environment.

Italian dairy food producer Parmalat said it intends to appeal after a judge granted summary judgment to Grant Thornton in a lawsuit against its former auditing firm for not doing enough to prevent the company’s collapse.

H&R Block subsidiary RSM McGladrey has terminated its service agreement with McGladrey & Pullen, two months after M&P also moved to terminate the agreement.

The Securities and Exchange Commission has levied a $3 million penalty against Charles Johnson Jr., the former CEO of PurchasePro, a now-defunct business-to-business online exchange company that was involved in an accounting fraud case with AOL.

The Tax & Accounting business of Thomson Reuters has donated its entire stock holdings in the American Institute of CPAs’ CPA2Biz subsidiary to the AICPA Foundation.

A man who had been barred five years ago from preparing tax returns and representing clients before the IRS was convicted of violating the injunction by continuing to do so.

New America Software has formally released its MultiTax software for download after about a year of beta testing with various tax preparation businesses.

Oversight Systems has released Oversight 5.0, the latest version of its software that analyzes data from financial systems and looks for instances of transaction fraud, misuse and errors.

Taxpayers will reap little benefit next year from the indexing of many features of the Tax Code, according to CCH, which released estimated income ranges for each 2010 tax bracket.

The American Institute of CPAs, the Certified Financial Planner Board of Standards, and the Retirement Security Project have joined the nonprofit Alliance for Investor Education.

Moss Adams CEO Rick Anderson has written to Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner urging him and other world financial leaders at the G-20 meeting next week to act more quickly on global accounting and corporate governance issues.

The Internal Revenue Service is spending millions of dollars in interest on tax refunds that have been improperly frozen, according to a new report.