Practice Management

The U.S. Supreme Court unanimously denied a taxpayer group's challenge to nearly $300 million in tax breaks given to a DaimlerChrysler plant in Toledo, Ohio.In the 9-0 decision, Chief Justice John Roberts wrote that the municipal taxpayer group had no standing to challenge tax or spending decisions based solely on their status as taxpayers. He wrote that the argument added "yet another level of conjecture to their already hypothetical claim of injury."

Creative Solutions Inc., a unit of Thomson Tax & Accounting, has acquired the assets of Dunphy Systems, a Columbus, Ohio-based publisher of tax software. Terms were not disclosed.Creative Solutions said that it will be making a special offer to Dunphy customers to transition to UltraTax CS, part of its CS Professional Suite. Renewal incentives for transitioning users include price protection at Dunphy renewal rates and special training options.

The Tax Increase Prevention and Reconciliation Act of 2005, signed by President Bush on May 17, 2006, took so long in coming that it still carried the "Act of 2005" label.Far from having no surprises, however, the final bill contained a generous handful of provisions that had been far out of the money only weeks before. While some of these unexpected changes impact businesses, the most high-profile surprises appear to focus on the individual taxpayer. These include the lifting of the adjusted gross income cap on Roth IRA conversions, the raising of the "Kiddie Tax" age limit to 18 years, and the increase in the AMT exemption amounts.

When recognizing benefits from uncertain tax positions in their financial statements, what level of confidence should corporations have that those positions will be sustained? How do they determine whether or not their positions meet that threshold for recognition?And if the position meets that recognition threshold, what share of the related benefit should be included in the entity's financial statements? What actions or events could change that recognition status for future financial statements?

Regional accounting firm J.H. Cohn LLP announced that it has inked a deal to acquire Fairfield, N.J.-based Mintz Rosenfeld & Co. LLC.

The Internal Revenue Service will survey nearly 50,000 taxpayers this month to help the agency improve the way it provides taxpayer services.

Deloitte Tax LLP announced an agreement to sell its Corptax software unit to MLM Information Services LLC. About 1,000 corporations and partnerships use the tax software.

In the wake of a failed effort to push through a permanent repeal of the estate tax, two Republican Congressman have introduced companion bills to form a new "Securing America's Future Economy Commission."

For the next four months, the Internal Revenue Service's Statistics of Income Division will be testing a prototype SOI Table Wizard.

In testimony before the Senate Finance Committee, Comptroller General David Walker said that it is impossible to know th e total amount of corporate tax avoidance for a number of reasons.