Practice Management

Now that tax season is over, you may be thinking of growing your practice through an acquisition.While it certainly remains a buyer's market, smart buyers make sure that they have worked through the following points.

H&R Block Inc. announced that its new bank opened more than 2 million prepaid card bank accounts by the end of the 2007 tax season, doubling the company’s original projection.

The popularity of S corporations has skyrocketed, with the number of businesses opting for them rising from 725,000 in 1985 to more than 3 million, according to the most recent statistics.And that growth is well-deserved, according to Richard Thompson, of the CPA and business advisory firm Sikich LLP. "S corporations have become such an important business vehicle because taxpayers understand their extreme value," he said.

The recent release of the long-awaited final regs on nonqualified deferred compensation under Code Sec. 409A did not bring a much-hoped-for extension of the effective date for full implementation of the rules. The final regs - all 209 pages of them, and the 186 pages it took to explain the changes made or not made to the proposed regs - do not extend the transition relief for compliance beyond Dec. 31, 2007.That does not leave much time for compliance, let alone formulating tax strategies that take maximum advantage of the small leeway that the final regs provide to employers. Compensation plans drafted under the proposed regulations must be compared against the final regs. Decisions on whether a plan should be terminated must be made. Final plan designs must be drafted and adopted. And then an explanation of the terms of the compliant plan must be explained (and sold) to the key executives who the plan has been adopted to keep happy in the first place.

As expected, the Treasury Department has created a new committee that will be charged with studying problems in the accounting industry.

The 2008 Low Income Taxpayer Clinic grant application process is now open.

Intuit Inc. has introduced a new trial balance utility for Lacerte tax software users, as well as announcing that it will host a series of one-day symposiums in June, providing training on topics such as how to use Intuit solutions more efficiently and how to successfully market a practice.

SMART Business Advisory and Consulting LLC announced that a Boston-based private equity firm has invested $60 million into its business.

The Internal Revenue Service Oversight Board met in early May to discuss the status of the IRS Private Debt Collection Program, as well as the budget for the IRS’s 2009 fiscal year.

Not even a month after talks were announced, two of Canada’s largest accounting firms have called off their merger talks.