Practice Management

The Internal Revenue Service is changing some of the forms and procedures that organizations can use to apply for tax-exempt status as it seeks to emerge from a high-profile scandal last year over how it handled applications from political groups.

Many considered Dec. 31, 2013, the final date for year-end tax planning, but there are numerous planning actions that you can take in 2014 retroactive to 2013. Here’s a quick and easy guide to help you with your planning.

There are already numerous studies attempting to peg the effect of tax rates on economic activity. There will undoubtedly be more, as politicians, economists and tax experts seek the magic formula to maximize both economic activity and government revenue.

The American Institute of CPAs has updated its Total Tax Insights calculator with information from 2013 to help taxpayers gauge the impact of more than 20 different federal, state and local taxes, including a new Medicare surtax that took effect last year, on their own taxes for this year.

Brock, Schechter & Polakoff LLP has added Gould & Swanson PC and John P. Whitty PC to its firm.

National Taxpayer Advocate Nina E. Olson urged the Internal Revenue Service to adopt a comprehensive Taxpayer Bill of Rights in her annual report to Congress Thursday, saying it would increase trust in the agency and, more generally, strengthen the IRS’s ability to serve taxpayers and collect tax. She also recommended allowing voluntary certification of unenrolled tax preparers if the IRS fails to win a court appeal of a ruling invalidating its testing requirements for tax preparers.

GBH CPAs PC and Prather Kalman have merged their practices under the GBH name. The combined firm will have about 40 employees.

Accounting Today is issuing a Final Call for speakers for its second annual Accounting Technology Forum.

H. Ty Warner, the billionaire creator of Beanie Babies plush toys, should go to prison for tax evasion, U.S. prosecutors told a federal judge.

The Internal Revenue Service started 1,492 criminal investigations into the use of tax returns to commit identity theft in the year that ended Sept. 30, a 66 percent increase, the agency said Tuesday.