Practice Management

H&R Block and Liberty Tax have been expanding from traditional tax preparation services into other areas such as bookkeeping as they reach out to service small business clients year-round, giving traditional accountants some extra competition.

AccountantsWorld has redesigned Website Relief, the company’s cloud-based software for helping accounting firms create websites and virtual offices.

Billionaire Warren Buffett was an ally of President Barack Obama during the 2008 presidential campaign and the force behind Obama’s “Buffett Rule,” designed to increase tax bills for the wealthiest Americans.

Nonprofit and for-profit corporations that borrow through the issuance of taxable or tax exempt municipal debt have a new rule about who can give them financial advice.

Armanino LLP is in the process of adding Berger Lewis Accountancy Corporation to its firm. The merger, which is subject to customary closing conditions, is expected to close by Jan. 1, 2015.

Highlights of some of our favorite tax-related blogs from the past week.

Thomson Reuters has begun offering a new Checkpoint Learning Tax Research Certificate Program for tax professionals.

Two top Republican lawmakers profited from a corporate tax-avoidance maneuver that the U.S. Treasury Department is seeking to curb.

The Internal Revenue Service recovered $576 million in erroneously issued tax refunds last year thanks to outside tips provided by financial institutions and other sources such as tax preparers, more than double the amount from three years ago.

Burger King Worldwide Inc. agreed to acquire Tim Hortons Inc. for about C$12.5 billion ($11.4 billion) in a deal that creates the third-largest fast-food company and moves its headquarters to Canada.