Practice Management

Catapult Communications Corporation recently announced that it is changing accounting firms. What was intriguing about the press release was the detailed reason given for changing from a Big Four to a regional firm. It made the change “to significantly reduce its accounting expenses.”

Benefits such as health insurance are nearly as popular as salary in convincing accounting professionals to join a company, according to a new survey.

The Internal Revenue Service has released the Corporation Source Book, which presents balance sheet, income statement, tax and other statistics across various industrial sectors.

IRS BEEFS UP TAXPAYER PRIVACY

I am often asked what differentiates firms that are successful with technology from those that struggle. My standard response is that firms struggle with technology when they view it as overhead, but they invariably profit from it when they value it as a strategic asset.

Perhaps one of the most difficult things is to get young and old accountants to think and act strategically. Most accounting and tax professionals are very good at following work plans. But it's a different story when you ask them to change the way they think and act.

The Internal Revenue Service hopes that new interim guidance for tax preparers will ease concerns over the expanded preparer penalties and heightened standards of conduct that must be met to avoid the penalties.

The Mortgage Forgiveness Debt Relief Act of 2007 has introduced a new paradigm of tax strategies for those who are falling behind on their home mortgage payments (or anticipate falling behind as the result of a pending adjustable rate mortgage reset).

President Bush said he would sign into law the economic stimulus package passed by Congress.

The Internal Revenue Service has improved its online refund-tracking tool and tax information publication.