Practice Management

A prominent Senate Democrat said that he would add rebates for senior citizens who depend on Social Security to the economic stimulus package, along with an extension of unemployment benefits.

The House voted by a 385 to 35 margin to pass the economic stimulus package agreed to by President Bush and House leaders.

Horwath International Association has been named one of the first full members of the Forum of Firms after reporting that it has implemented a globally coordinated quality assurance program.

The California Society of CPAs and the California CPA Education Foundation launched a Financial Leadership Forum to provide education, training and other resources for CPAs and business and finance executives.

Following a flurry of mergers throughout 2007, many top-drawer consultants in the accounting profession believe that this year will be just as active — and that foretells myriad changes for firms of all sizes.“I feel that [M&A activity is] hitting rapid proliferation moving forward,” said Gary Shamis, managing director of Ohio-based SS&G Financial Services. “And it’s going to become more significant in this year.”

For those who live and breathe cost segregation work, there’s an element of surprise surrounding how little most people — CPAs included — know about the tax-savings strategy.“On a recent proposal opportunity, a tax principal and I met with a potential client who owns 15 properties,” said Lawrence Knutson, CPA/ABV and consulting senior manager at Ehrhardt Keefe Steiner & Hottman PC in Denver. “The potential client had developed the properties over the last 20 years. He had a sole proprietor doing his tax return who is retiring. We came in and the first thing we mentioned was cost segregation. He had never heard of it. We see that more and more. I don’t think we’ve fully realized the size of the cost segregation market.”

Remember the theme from Cheers, the TV series about a friendly Boston pub and its memorable regulars? The opening theme refrain ran: "You want to go where everybody knows your name."Something similar is at work when it comes to building value propositions to grow revenue. To succeed, you've got to determine what makes the buyer tick.

There may be 2-D bar codes in the future of paper-filed returns, if recommendations from the Government Accountability Office are followed.In its end-of-year report on last year’s tax season, the GAO said that the Internal Revenue Service exceeded the previous year’s performance by most measures. However, it noted a number of opportunities to realize additional savings and increase tax compliance, with the barcoding of paper returns among them.

In the last few days before Congress adjourned for 2007, a number of tax law changes finally made it through the two chambers and on to President Bush. The president has either already signed or indicated his willingness to sign each piece of legislation. Several of the provisions enacted will have an impact on 2007 tax returns.Even with this flurry of activity, a number of pieces of legislation, including most of the energy-related tax proposals, an agriculture bill with tax provisions, military tax relief, and the extension of expiring provisions, as well as a fairly extensive list of offsetting revenue raisers, got left off the table and will be addressed again in 2008. The following is a summary of each of the tax laws enacted, the principal provisions, and the impact, if any, on 2007 tax returns.

Congressional leaders have struck a $150 billion deal on an economic stimulus plan that would give most taxpayers rebate checks of $600 to $1,200.