Practice Management

Everyone in Washington seems to be in agreement that there needs to be a better way of closing the tax gap, but like the other problems facing the Internal Revenue Service, there’s seems to be little Beltway consensus over how to meaningfully tackle the problem.It wasn’t lost on me that the same week that the IRS released its 2008 budget proposal --complete with a number of legislative proposals, a Congressman and the National Taxpayer Advocate continued to spar over the future of one of the agency’s newer attempts to combat the tax gap -- the outsourcing of simple collection cases to private companies as part of a pilot program.

As part of the White House’s proposed $2.9 trillion budget plan for the 2008 fiscal year, President Bush announced an effort aimed at significantly tightening the tax gap.

Popping, crackling Golden Bertolli, fresh dough, tomatoes from Salerno, buffalo mozzarella from Caserta, Fior di Latte, and Parmigiano Reggiano are the ingredients of a slice of pizza I had at a local Brooklyn pizza place last week.Let me tell you a little bit more. Only one individual makes the pie, an older man. He also serves the pies and slices to the customers. His daughter sometimes helps to serve and makes the entrées, pasta, and heroes. The customers clean off the tables (and not just their own).

Pittsburgh’s Malin, Bergquist and Co. LLP and Greensburg, Pa.-based Deluzio, Teems & Anzovino announced that they have merged.

Besides rising pay for directors, a recent study found that the proportion of S&P 500 companies with classified boards dropped by 8 percent last year, leading to the majority of those companies holding annual elections for all of their directors.

With all the talk about curbing exorbitant executive compensation packages and increased disclosure, I was reminded of an incident nearly 25 years ago, when I was accidentally sent a paycheck intended for Lenny, my supervisor.

The Internal Revenue Service’s Whistleblower Office opened for business this month. The congressionally mandated program is designed to receive information that helps uncover tax cheating and provide appropriate rewards to whistleblowers.

Thomson Tax & Accounting, part of the Thomson Corp., announced that it has finalized the acquisition of Illinois-based Deloitte Tax LLP Sales & Use Outsourcing business.

It might not have generated quite the media hoopla of say, Groundhog Day, but yesterday marked the launch of the Earned Income Tax Credit Awareness Day.

In 2006, the U.S. personal savings rate hit its lowest level since the Great Depression, according to the Commerce Department.The agency said that the country’s savings rate for all of 2006 was a negative 1 percent -- meaning that not only did people spend all the money they earned throughout the year, but that they also dipped into savings, or increased borrowing to finance purchases.