Practice Management

A recent study on corporate tax payments has been making waves on the Internet and in Washington in the past week.

I write the "M&A" update box in Practical Accountant's Profession Watch section, and one of the details we give for firms recently merged or acquired is "Niches/Concentrations."

Rodefer Moss & Co. plans to merge with Melhiser Endres Tucker, expanding the firm from its Tennessee base into Indiana and Kentucky.

Stefano Vranca, a principal at Rothstein Kass’s Beverly Hills, Calif., office, sees lawsuits in the entertainment industry up close.As head of the firm’s litigation and forensics practice, he often handles royalty reviews and negotiations for various movie studios. Vranca has noticed an increasing reliance on “creative accounting” by businesses of all types as the economy goes sour and companies try to eke out revenues whatever way they can.

Accounting firm J.H. Cohn has combined practices with Frederic Kantor & Co., a Manhattan-based accounting firm serving high-net-worth individuals and families in entertainment and the creative arts.The merger came on the heels of J.H. Cohn’s combination with Good Swartz Brown & Berns in Southern California. No cash was exchanged in the business combination, according to marketing director Amy Koeppl.

IRS REDUCES BIZ TAX EXTENSIONSWashington, D.C. — The Internal Revenue Service has moved up the extended due date for partnership, estate and trust tax returns from Oct. 15 to Sept. 15 to avoid overlapping with the extended deadline for individual taxes.

No one is accountable around here!” I can’t tell you how many times I’ve heard that statement from partner groups and leadership teams — and we hear it from your young people too! Yes, your up-and-coming leaders want to be held accountable, and they also want the leaders in their organizations to be accountable. They see what is possible in an environment that embraces — even demands — accountability.That is why we have dedicated this article to exploring what it takes to build a foundation for accountability in your organization.

John Gutfreund, former CEO of investment bank Salomon Brothers, is facing a lien of over $430,000 from the Internal Revenue Service on his 16-room Fifth Avenue apartment.

The Internal Revenue Service has offered more ways for employers to make voluntary corrections in their employee retirement plans to bring them into compliance with tax laws and regulations.

National Taxpayer Advocate Nina E. Olson’s list of objectives — detailed in the first of her two annual required reports to Congress — zeroes in on the problems that she intends to focus on during the fiscal year ahead.At least one of the objectives — which focuses on the liabilities of incentive stock options under the Alternative Minimum Tax — has a good chance of being resolved, according to Tim Carlson, president of the Coalition for Tax Fairness and pro bono attorney for a number of victims of the anomaly. “Pending legislation will fix it, and it has support from both sides of the aisle,” he said.