Practice Management

The Sage Group will enter the credit card and check payment-processing field with the $323 million acquisition of Verus Financial Management Inc. from Financial Technology Ventures.

New York-based firm Marks Paneth & Shron has acquired Leipziger & Breskin LLP in a deal effective Jan. 1.

Wolters Kluwer Tax, Accounting & Legal announced that is has acquired the assets of Best Case Solutions Inc.

It was just two months ago that Internal Revenue Service Commissioner Mark W. Everson touted his agency's enforcement results for the 2005 fiscal year.

Corporate tax payments hitting an all-time high last month helped offset record federal spending.

The Internal Revenue Service sent out 17.7 million 1040 tax packages during the first of January to taxpayers who have previously filed paper returns. The number of paper tax booklets being mailed to Americans continues to decline as more people opt for electronic filing.

LarsonAllen strengthened its commitment to the East Coast with a Philadelphia-area merger that will see it acquire 50-year-old firm Ostroff, Fair & Co. PC.

Wiss & Co. announced that it has merged in the operations of Warren, N.J.-based accounting firm Casey, Townsend & Killian LLP, a specialist in the construction industry, as of Jan. 1. Terms of the deal where not disclosed.

Today's accounting profession is challenged by the classic high demand/low supply of experienced professionals. In this competitive arena, CPA firms should arm themselves with the following arsenal of 10 ways to recruit and retain qualified accountants:1. Have a well-planned "First Year" program, encompassing an extensive orientation and mentoring policy to build good will between management and new accountants while building better professionals.

TAX OVERHAUL MAY BE ANOTHER YEAR AWAY: Reports from inside the White House are that President Bush's administration may wait until 2007 to begin pushing a proposal to overhaul the tax code.A proposal was originally planned as a key part of President Bush's second-term agenda, but Republican sources have said that any push would have problems gaining traction in a mid-term election cycle. The Treasury is currently reviewing the recommendations issued by the President's Advisory Panel for Tax Reform before submitting a plan to the president.