Practice Management

The Federal Housing Administration insured over $1.44 billion in mortgages for 6,327 borrowers with $77.6 million in federal tax debt who benefited from the 2009 American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. Of these borrowers, 3,815 individuals claimed and received $27.4 million of First-Time Homebuyer Credits from the Recovery Act.

Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., has a novel idea. Instead of allowing $500 billion of cuts in the defense budget to go forward as part of last year’s deficit reduction deal, he wants to use money saved from closing tax loopholes.

The Internal Revenue Service said Tuesday that its Offshore Voluntary Disclosure Programs have exceeded the $5 billion mark and released new details on the latest iteration of the Offshore Voluntary Disclosure Program that began in January, including tightening the eligibility requirements.

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.