Practice Management

The recently passed Treasury appropriations bill for next year sets a budget of $10.7 billion for the Internal Revenue Service, with most of the agency's $434 million increase tabbed for enforcement efforts.

The House and Senate passed the Treasury appropriations bill for next year, allocating a budget of $10.7 billion for the Internal Revenue Service, a $434 million increase from 2005 that will mostly be directed to enforcement efforts.

Xpert Business Solutions and Socius 1, two national technology consulting firms, announced a merger that will leave the two businesses operating under the name Socius. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.

As the Senate approved a measure with $60 billion in tax cuts, the House will consider its own measure containing $56.6 billion in cuts. Both plans are spread over the next five years.

Yount, Hyde & Barbour PC announced it will merge with its neighbor, Rose, Sanderson & Creasy LLC, a Richmond, Va.-based CPA firm.

Although President Bush's tax reform advisory group recommended against shifting the U.S. to a European-style value added tax or a national sales tax system, congressional advocates of consumption taxes haven't given up the fight.

The Senate will debate a tax bill that would cut taxes by about $61 billion over the next five years, and would include a $5 billion tax next year for the nation's biggest oil companies.

The Internal Revenue Service has launched its revamped Web site at www.irs.gov.

A report from the Government Accountability Office suggested the Internal Revenue Service and the United States Citizenship and Immigrations Services -- the agency responsible for immigration administration -- form a partnership to share information and increase tax compliance.

In early November, Rector J. Edwin Bacon told parishioners at the All Saints Episcopal Church in Pasadena, Calif., that the Internal Revenue Service was examining the church for a possible violation of its nonprofit status.