Practice Management

IMGCAP(1)]Gordon Krater took the reins as managing partner of Plante & Moran in July, only the sixth managing partner since the firm was founded in 1924. He was first elected by the firm’s partners last October, and succeeded Bill Hermann, who had served as managing partner at the Southfield, Mich.-based firm since July 2001.

The Internal Revenue Service has opened a new section of its Web site dedicated to various back-to-school tax breaks for college savings and tuition credits.

The IRS’s use of computer formulas is paying off for the agency, improving productivity and picking out returns that taxpayers agree to settle for the recommended additional amounts.

PDI Global has introduced a Social Media Starter Package to help more accounting firms incorporate social media into their marketing programs.

The U.S. and Monaco have signed a tax information exchange agreement to allow the two countries to share information on tax matters, including bank accounts used to stash money abroad.

The IRS faces challenges in recruitment, training and retention of employees to replace the increasing number of employees who are eligible to retire, according to a new report by the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration.

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission “never took the necessary and basic steps” that would have led to the agency uncovering Bernard L. Madoff’s $65 billion Ponzi scheme, according to the full report issued Friday by the agency’s Inspector-General.

H&R Block reported a consolidated net loss for the first quarter of $133.6 million, or 40 cents a share, with much of the loss attributed to tax operations.

Former All-Star baseball pitcher Jerry Koosman received a six-month sentence for not paying his federal income taxes for 2002-2004.

The Cellular Telecommunications Industry Association has asked the IRS to repeal an old tax rule that required employees to maintain logs detailing their business usage of mobile phones.