Practice Management

The Internal Revenue Service said Tuesday that it plans to help U.S. citizens who reside in foreign countries, catch up with their tax-filing obligations and offer assistance to those with foreign retirement plans.

Plante Moran and Blackman Kallick, two of Chicago’s biggest accounting firms, will merge effective July 1, 2012. Together, the two firms employ 2,000 staff members in 22 offices in Illinois, Michigan and Ohio, and three offices internationally. Combined revenue for the firms in 2011 was approximately $375 million.

KPMG LLP has launched a new service, Operational Transfer Pricing, to help multinational companies better navigate the growing risks they face with intercompany transactions internationally.

Students and their families do not always select tax breaks that could help them afford the cost of college tuition, possibly because tax filers are unaware of their eligibility for the tax credit or deduction or are confused about their use, according to a government report.

CPA and consulting firm Wipfli LLP has launched a new practice to offer turnaround and restructuring services to businesses that are experiencing operational and financial distress and attempting to recover.

Deloitte has expanded its electronic discovery management and litigation services by acquiring substantially all of the assets of IE Discovery Inc., an Austin, Texas-based provider of legal discovery services to government agencies, particularly the federal government.

A California tax preparer who submitted false tax forms and promoted a tax fraud scheme in the U.S. and Canada was sentenced Friday in a Seattle federal court to 12 years in prison, three years of supervised release and over $6.2 million in restitution for conspiracy and wire fraud.

The Internal Revenue Service cautioned tax professionals Friday that their clients need to submit reports of any foreign bank accounts by the June 30 deadline.

Leaders of the Senate and House committees charged with tax policy plan to hold a rare joint hearing next Thursday on tax reform and the tax treatment of capital gains.

The Internal Revenue Service said it plans to improve the timeliness and responsiveness of its Whistleblower Office to claims of tax underpayments.