Practice Management

News of firm mergers and acquisitions continues to flow -- over the past week, a trio of firms announced deals that were effective as of the start of the New Year.

CPA firms continue to experience strong growth, with 76 percent reporting an increase in firm size last year, according to benchmark data in the 2006 National Management of an Accounting Practice Survey.Despite that growth, the recently-released survey also confirmed that succession planning remains a stumbling block for many firms facing the imminent retirement of the Baby Boomer generation. The survey found that only 24 percent of firms have a succession plan and only 7 percent of firms have partner-in-training programs.

Payroll, tax and benefit services provider TimePlus Payroll announced its recent acquisition of West Columbia, S.C.-based American Business Payroll.

A domestic focus of President Bush’s State of the Union address was a proposal aimed at expanding access to affordable health insurance that faces a tough political road to becoming reality.

The federal government will run a deficit of $172 billion in fiscal 2007, the Congressional Budget Office said yesterday.The projected deficit will drop to $98 billion in 2008 and flatten out by 2012/ The deficit for the 2006 fiscal year, which ended Sept. 30, was $248 billion.

Thanks to a seldom-observed holiday, the Internal Revenue Service announced that taxpayers will have until April 17, to file their 2006 returns and pay any taxes due.

Top 100 Firm Blum, Shapiro & Co. PC announced that it has acquired Glastonbury, Conn.-based Scully & Wolf LLP.

In response to requests from Congress, the Government Accountability Office has released a new report outlining a trio of approaches that would reduce the tax gap.

Two boutique accounting firms based in Houston announced their recent merger.

Officials in Kansas City, Mo., told a local paper that more than two dozen computer tapes containing confidential taxpayer information are missing.