Practice Management

The Internal Revenue Service has posted the 2006 Data Book on its Web site.

With many of its players accruing lengthy rap sheets, charged with felonies ranging from illegal firearms possession to sexual assault, it would be safe to say the National Football League has been battling something of an image problem of late.

The measures to close the tax gap offered by President Bush in his 2008 budget are somewhat modest, according to observers.The president's $2.9 trillion budget contains a number of legislative proposals to close the gap in four areas: by expanding information reporting, improving compliance by businesses, strengthening tax administration and expanding penalties.

Tax prep giant H&R Block Inc. announced that it has opened up shop in the online virtual universe known as Second Life.Second Life is entirely built and owned by its residents, who have created a 3-D world that includes homes, vehicles, nightclubs, stores, landscapes, clothing and games. Last month, the site passed the 4-million-account threshold, though many accounts are not active and some residents have multiple accounts.

Blue & Co. LLC will acquire a 20-person accounting firm based in Columbus, Ohio.Blue’s deal to acquire Sheridan Barton Vasko & Co., which will operate under the Blue & Co. name, is expected to be completed June 1. Financial terms of the merger were not disclosed.

The Internal Revenue Service announced that through March 13, more than 2.6 million taxpayers have electronically filed their returns using the agency’s Free File program. TThough that’s about 4 percent drop from the number of returns filed during the same time last year.

Two northern New York accounting firms recently announced their merger, in a deal effective Jan. 1.

Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson said that U.S. rulemakers should consider adopting "principles-based" regulations and accounting standards in a speech at the Capital Markets Competitiveness Conference.Paulson said that in particular, there should be a focus on three issues in the United States -- the country’s regulatory structure, its accounting industry and its legal and corporate governance environment.

A Goldman Sachs investment banker, who earned $115,000 in 2002, will not be able to take all of the $55,000 charitable contribution deduction she took for that tax year -- $49,000 of which she took for donations of used clothing to a thrift store.

In an early spurt of spring cleaning, I came across an ancient, yellowed clipping from the New York Post. Although there was no date on it, it is clearly from 1986, the year the Bears won the Super Bowl and Ronald Reagan got his tax reform. It tells the story of then-Treasury Secretary James Baker, who in his enthusiasm for both rap music and a simpler tax code, broke out into rhyming couplets during a rally to tout tax reform. His poetic achievement was based loosely on the Chicago Bears’ “Super Bowl Shuffle,” which members of the team recorded en route to their victory in Super Bowl XX, and which reached No. 41 on the Billboard charts before actually landing a Grammy nomination.