Practice Management

Write-ups are extinct. When I started in 1963, most small CPA firms primarily did write-ups. After I started my practice in 1969, it became an embarrassment to say I did write-ups. It connoted something beneath my “professional” status. I think a problem today is that write-ups no longer exist for younger staff.

The Internal Revenue Service has released the 2014 version of “The Truth about Frivolous Tax Arguments,” a document that describes and responds to some of the common frivolous tax arguments made by those who oppose the federal tax laws.

The U.S. Office of Special Counsel has recently investigated several cases in which Internal Revenue Service employees allegedly engaged in partisan political activity in the workplace, advocating in support of President Obama.

The United States is working with other countries on multinational corporate tax issues, including the increasingly thorny issue of base erosion and profit shifting.

While the tax code definition of useful life for business assets is intended to correspond to their actual life, this isn’t always the case.

The Internal Revenue Service said Thursday it has initiated more than 200 new investigations this filing season into identity theft and tax refund fraud schemes, and the IRS Criminal Investigation unit has started 295 new identity theft investigations since January, pushing the number of active cases to more than 1,800.

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

The AICPA recently issued an Accounting and Valuation Guide on assets acquired to be used in research and development activities, replacing a practice aid it issued in 2001 for in-process research and development.

The House Ways and Means Committee voted Wednesday to send a criminal referral letter to Attorney General Eric Holder, asking him to determine whether Lois Lerner, the former director of the Internal Revenue Service’s Exempt Organizations unit, violated the law.

The Internal Revenue Service did not pursue up to $53 million in potentially improper claims for the Qualified Retirement Savings Contributions Credit, according to a new government report.