Practice Management

New York City’s Department of Consumer Affairs has investigated nearly 800 income tax preparers in a month-long investigation and issued 2,010 charges for violations, including illegally advertising refund anticipation loans as “instant” or “rapid” refunds.

IMGCAP(1)]To gather information for law enforcement, particularly drugs and organized crime, Congress has long required U.S. persons owning or having signatory authority over foreign financial accounts to file a report with the Department of the Treasury disclosing information about the accounts.

A California tax preparer was sentenced to more than five years in prison and ordered to pay $377,468 in restitution after she was convicted of tax fraud.

Senate Democrats have introduced legislation to extend unemployment benefits, a 65 percent subsidy for COBRA health insurance for the unemployed, and a large set of tax breaks that expired at the end of last year.

The Internal Revenue Service has released statistics indicating a drop-off in both the number of tax returns filed for 2008, and the amount of income, showing the effects of the recession.

Accounting firm Clayton & McKervey has opened a Chinese Web site to attract Chinese businesses expanding to the United States.

Freed Maxick & Battaglia has hired PR strategist and communications professional Emily Alexandria Burns as the firm’s e-marketing and communications specialist.

BizActions, a company that provides customized e-mail newsletters that CPAs can send to their clients, has introduced Dashboard 2.0, the latest version of its desktop application that displays organized, up-to-date information about clients’ newsletter readership.

The Internal Revenue Service has temporarily suspended the requirement to file a Report of Foreign Bank and Financial Accounts for the 2009 and earlier calendar years, for people who are not U.S. citizens, residents or domestic entities.

The Justice Department has asked a federal court to stop two Miami-based tax return preparers from improperly claiming the First-Time Home Buyer Credit.