Practice Management

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.

A regional accounting firm recently announced that it sold its financial outsourcing solutions practice to another accounting firm. The outsourcing group provides internal auditing and compliance services, primarily to financial institutions. A stated reason for the sale was that independence regulations restrict many companies from using the same accounting firm to provide both external audit and internal audit services, and the growth of the group was limited in the regional firm by these restrictions given the firm’s growing number of financial institution audit clients. I wonder what else influenced the sale, and if the sale is indicative of a trend of divestment of practice areas by accounting firms? As more and more firms establish affiliates and specialized practice groups, it would make sense that firms would continue to evaluate their profitability and whether it pays to divest. Businesses are constantly evaluating their units, so why shouldn’t accounting firms? Am I talking about apples and oranges, as most firms are looking to recruit and retain staff? Maybe, but I think firms, especially the larger ones, are increasingly applying a corporate business philosophy to how they operate. There are consultants that match up firms for mergers, so why can’t these consultants also act as the brokers for a transfer of a firm’s practice group or affiliate? You also might see more firms being broken up more by practice areas, with the staff from each practice area joining different firms because of the greater value that can be obtained in contrast with the dissolving firm merging with one firm. The accounting firm is an evolving business model. Consolidators, technology, independence requirements, and globalization are just a few of the factors driving the changes that influence firms differently, often by the size and location of the firm, as well as by the competition the firm is up against. Some firms are being very creative and thinking outside the box so why shouldn’t firms, when appropriate, consider and explore all available options?

After years of sounding the fiscal imbalance bell, Comptroller General David Walker, the head of the Government Accountability Office, has committed a to-do list to paper for the 110th Congress.In a letter dated Nov. 17, Walker outlines a number of areas his federal watchdog agency, says the newly-elected politicians should consider in getting a “jump-start” on legislative planning.

If we achieve what we measure, then is it true that we become what we think about most of the time? Philip E. Humbert, Ph.D., wrote, "The human brain is a goal-seeking, problem-solving machine, and the things we think about, focus on and worry about inevitably shape our destiny."Let's take this down to the reality of a managing partner. What do you focus on and worry about? If your answer is everything, you are filling your mind with too much stuff. No one can worry about everything. However, there are a handful of things you should be worrying about when it comes to the health of your practice.