Practice Management

The question of how to pay for universal health care could lead to a troubling answer: taxing health benefits. Congress and the Obama administration will be weighing a variety of approaches in the coming months, with the goal of offering legislation before the August recess. Some legislative leaders, such as former Presidential candidate Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., and Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus, D-Mont., have advocated taxing health care benefits as one way to pay for an expensive health care overhaul. Up to now, these benefits have been tax-free.

The Internal Revenue Service plans to discontinue live programming of its Tax Talk Today webcasts on May 12, leaving accountants worried about their continuing professional education credits.

A chartered accountant from the U.K. who served as a former board member and vice chairman at global audit firm BDO Seidman has pleaded guilty to conspiracy with tax shelter promoters while claiming roughly $1 billion in fraudulent losses.

The Public Company Accounting Oversight Board has raised the aggregate 2009 fee it assesses to public companies and other issuers to $157.4 million from $151.8 million.

The Internal Revenue Service says that small businesses with deductions exceeding their income in 2008 can use a new net operating loss tax provision to get a refund of taxes paid in prior years. The IRS says it will work to issue refunds within 45 days or less “to the degree possible.”

Lawmakers continue to apply pressure to the Securities and Exchange Commission to reinstate a Depression-era rule that prevents traders from short-selling stocks whose share prices are falling.

The Financial Accounting Standards Board has issued a pair of proposed fair value staff positions written to provide additional guidance regarding measurements and impairments of securities, after coming under pressure at a congressional hearing to ease mark-to-market accounting standards.

Don't cut that marketing budget -- or at least think twice before you get out the scalpel.

Accounting Today queried a selection of firms and asked marketing leaders for their single best strategy that raised their profile -- as well as their insight into accounting marketing trends. Thalia Zetlin "It was a niche-specific strategy with a particularly timely focus. The economy is on everyone's mind. We empathize with clients and we're taking action. Leveraging the firm's brainpower and sensitivity to current and anticipated client needs, the firm is producing guidance to help clients move through a difficult time. We zero-in on the business and personal issues in each sector. The media is picking up on our timely insights and, in this interactive world, one mention leads to many others, and we're seeing a tremendous surge in media exposure -- further distinguishing us in the marketplace."

A federal grand jury has indicted a California tax preparer for claiming he was an enrolled agent with the Internal Revenue Service.