Practice Management

The Internal Revenue Service has allocated nearly $1 billion of tax credits to nine planned clean coal projects.The Energy Policy Act of 2005 authorized the tax credits, and, working within a number of set parameters, the IRS consulted with the Department of Energy to allocate the credit to specific projects.

The Internal Revenue Service announced new guidelines for taxpayers to follow in order to substantiate donations to charities that were made via payroll deduction.

In a grab for its share of the exploding Web-based banking market, QuickBooks parent Intuit Inc. agreed to acquire online banking services provider Digital Insight Inc. for $1.35 billion via a combination of cash and debt.Under the terms of the deal, which is expected to close during the first quarter of 2007, Intuit will tender $39 in cash for each share of Calabasas, Calif.-based Digital Insight -- roughly 18 percent over the company’s closing share price of $33 prior to the announcement. Intuit will also assume about $1 billion in debt financing.

The Internal Revenue Service modified a $103 million contract for the management of paper tax returns in November, according to a published report.According to the Washington Post, the original plan to turn over the filing, storage and retrieval activities at seven IRS centers to a contractor Dec. 1 was altered so that, for now, the outsourcing will occur at just two centers. In a statement, the IRS said the conversion was scaled back "to ensure that a sufficient number of employees with the required training and security clearances are in place to manage the files during the upcoming filing season."

The U.S. Tax Court will continue its consideration of a requirement that would push the Internal Revenue Service commissioner to publicly file answers to all small tax cases.Chief Judge John Colvin first announced the proposed change in September, noting that small tax cases comprise about half of the court’s docket. He said that petitioners in those cases are increasingly being represented by low-income taxpayer clinics, and suggested that those parties, as well as the court itself, might benefit from improved pretrial communication between all the parties involved in settling some of those cases.

San Diego-area accounting firm Peterson & Co. LLP announced that it will merge into Newport Beach, Calif.-based Squar, Milner, Miranda & Williamson LLP.Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed. The combined firm will operate under the name Squar, Milner, Peterson, Miranda & Williamson LLP.

ADP Employer Services, a division of Automatic Data Processing Inc., announced that it has completed its acquisition of Taxware LP from First Data Corp.

Sometimes, I feel bad for Comptroller General David Walker and his staff at the Government Accountability Office.I imagine it’s the same sort of sadness most people feel for the geeky guys in high school comedies. You know, the good guys who never get the girl, but are there throughout the course of the plotline, providing some sort of insight into the inner workings of the social machination that exists all around them.

The two organizations that police stock brokers and others working in the securities industry will form a new, single self-regulatory body.

Westwood, Mass.-based accounting firm Gray, Gray & Gray LLP will acquire the Norwood, Mass. practice of Clark R. Rattet & Associates PC.