Practice Management

Caldwell & Co., P.C., a CPA and business advisory firm based in Bethesda, Md., has merged in C.J. Becker & Associates Chartered, P.C., effective immediately.

A California tax preparer who falsely claimed to be a CPA and former IRS employee could receive up to six years in prison after he pleaded guilty this week to aiding and assisting others in preparing false tax returns.

New Jersey ranks at the bottom of the list in a new study of the comparative business friendliness of tax systems in the 50 states, while South Dakota is counted as most business friendly.

Payroll services provider CompuPay Inc. has acquired New Hampshire-based competitor Infinity Payroll for undisclosed terms.

Accounting Today is soliciting submissions for its 2009 Technology Pacesetters, honoring value-added resellers that carry accounting software as a central part of their product line. Determining factors include: vendor awards, growth over the past year and participation on advisory boards and industry events.

The Treasury Department’s Inspector General for Tax Administration has released a report recommending that the IRS seek mandatory electronic filing of individual tax returns by paid preparers, and legislation is being readied to write such a requirement into law.

IMGCAP(1)]Remember when the hefty three-ringed tax research guides required a whole room set aside as a library? Oh, and a librarian? Imagine justifying this expense to your partners today. You couldn’t. You wouldn’t want to because the alternative is so much better than the dark woodsy library ever was.

The State of Minnesota has decided to end its income tax reciprocity program with Wisconsin, effective Jan. 1, 2010.

Accounting firms Chilton & Medley and Mountjoy & Bressler plan to combine into one of the largest firms in Louisville, Ky.

Year-end tax planning for 2009 presents a unique set of challenges, in addition to reprising some traditional ones. Many more tax breaks this year are temporary, either sunsetting in 2009 or 2010. Congress, in 11th-hour brinkmanship, is not helping to signal in advance which provisions will be extended. Further, the conventional tax advice of accelerating deductions and deferring income may not sit well if deferring income runs the risk of not receiving it at all in an uncertain economy ... or receiving it when tax rates go higher.