WebCPA Staff

A coalition of three prominent financial planning trade associations called for legislation to create a national organization to oversee the financial planning profession but prevent the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority from acting in that capacity.

CPA firm Steinberg Advisors is merging with another Chicago-area firm, Robinson, Reinglass & Panos, expanding Steinberg’s client base in the health care market.

Swiss President Hans-Rudolf Merz told a news conference that he had talked with U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner over the weekend about dropping a case against UBS over its tax shelters in return for signing a new tax treaty between the two nations.

The International Accounting Standards Board said that the Financial Accounting Standards Board’s recently issued guidance on fair value measurement is consistent with its existing guidance, but it still sees a need to revise its own controversial standards to account for the impairment of illiquid assets.

Rap singer and actor Snoop Dogg is facing a tax lien from the State of California, along with assault charges.

William R. Hagaman Jr., has been elected the next managing partner of accounting firm WithumSmith+Brown.

H&R Block reported that the total number of tax returns prepared as of April 15 fell by 667,000, or 3.1 percent, compared to last year, excluding economic stimulus filers, but Block still earned a record amount on fees.

Internal Revenue Service Commissioner Douglas Shulman has selected Sarah Hall Ingram as commissioner of the Tax Exempt and Government Entities Division and Steven T. Miller as commissioner of the Large and Midsize Business Division.

The Internal Revenue Service has signed a tax-processing contract with a company that has admitted to having information on 1.5 million payment card holders and 1.1 million Social Security numbers stolen by computer hackers.

The Senate Finance Committee heard from a panel of experts about the pros and cons of skewing energy tax benefits toward one technology, such as wind power, at the expense of another.

The International Public Sector Accounting Standards Board is proposing new financial reporting requirements to help public sector entities account for financial instruments, such as derivatives, bonds, and loans, and produce global standards of transparency.

The Maryland Association of CPAs wants to send a message to its members that it’s there to help them survive the turbulent economy.

The Tax & Accounting business of Thomson Reuters has started TaxWatch University, a tax staff-training program that combines the company’s AuditWatch University multi-level curriculum design with the in-depth taxation knowledge of the experts in the company’s PPC division.

Ernst & Young has selected a new leader in the Americas for its Transaction Advisory Services team, which advises companies on mergers and acquisitions.

Lynn Turner, former chief accountant of the Securities and Exchange Commission, has a new job: senior advisor and managing director of the forensic accounting practice at LECG.

Some 81 percent of chief financial officers and senior controllers polled in a national survey believe that the chief executive and chairman’s posts should be separate, while nearly three-quarters (74 percent) indicated that shareholders should have greater access to the proxy to nominate directors.

KPMG has published its first-ever Living Green Annual Report detailing the firm’s efforts to become more eco-friendly.

AccountantsWorld has begun selling unlimited payroll processing to accountants for $997 per year.

A Utah attorney who hasn’t filed a tax return since the 1980s was fined $250,000 and sentenced to three years in prison for impeding the Internal Revenue Service.

Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus, D-Mont., praised President Obama’s picks for chief counsel of the Internal Revenue Service and assistant secretary for financial stability.