Practice Management

Home mortgage loan giant Fannie Mae announced that it expects the tab on a review of its accounting, as well as the preparation of up-to-date financial statements for the first time since the end of 2004, to run upwards of $1 billion this year.

Sacramento headquartered CPA and management consulting firm Macias Gini & O’Connell LLP announced that it has entered into an agreement to acquire cross-town accounting firm Essary, Dal Porto & Lowe LLP.Financial terms of the deal, bringing together one of the city's oldest firms with one of its largest firms, were not disclosed.

Personal exemptions and standard deductions will rise, tax brackets will widen and income limits for individual retirement accounts will increase in 2007, due to inflation adjustments announced by the Internal Revenue Service.

CPA and business advisory firm Abrams Little-Gill Loberfeld PC will merge with Newton, Mass.-based CPA firm Glantz, Saperstein, Leavitt & Farber, LLP.Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.

The Tax Court reaffirmed that proceeds from the sale of a right to future annual lottery payments constitutes ordinary income, not capital gain, after reviewing two test cases involving winners of the Florida State Lottery.

Merck & Co. disclosed four separate tax disputes that have combined potential liabilities for the drug maker of more than $5.5 billion.

RSM McGladrey has announced plans to join forces with U.K.-based RSM Robson Rhodes.

The Government Accountability Office offered some recommendations aimed at upping efficiency, but said that the Internal Revenue Service Office of Appeals has been doing a good job handling its process for collection due appeals.Under the IRS Restructuring and Reform Act of 1998, taxpayers facing liens or levies can request a collection due process appeal hearing with the IRS office. By 2005, those cases represented about one-quarter of the office’s workload.

Not that things were going super smoothly before, but the path to turning any of President Bush’s second-term agenda into meaningful change just got a lot harder following yesterday’s election.

H&R Block announced a number of refund lending enhancements in a recent news release. A side-by-side comparison chart will outline all filing options, fees, and the time that it takes to receive a refund.H&R Block will also provide a report that states, among other things, that selecting a refund anticipation loan product means that taxpayers get less of their refunds. This announcement follows H&R Block's September announcement that it is reducing the cost of refund.