Practice Management

The Internal Revenue Service announced relief for taxpayers affected by Hurricane Wilma.

With the President's Advisory Panel on Federal Tax Reform due to report Nov. 1, we asked industry leaders, many who made Accounting Today's recently released 2005 Top 100 Most Influential People list, to tell us what sort of tax system they would create.

The Internal Revenue Service and the Free File Alliance have extended their partnership, a pact that provides free tax services and electronic filing to an eligible pool of 93 million taxpayers, and providing important new consumer protections.

The Treasury Department has made three new appointments to the Office of Tax Policy.Michael J. Desmond was named tax legislative counsel, Harry J. "Hal" Hicks III was named international tax counsel and Robert H. Dilworth was named senior advisor.

The Internal Revenue Service is seeking 84,290 taxpayers whose income tax refund checks could not be delivered in 2005. Checks totaling approximately $73 million can be reissued as soon as taxpayers correct or update their addresses with the IRS.In some cases, a taxpayer has more than one check waiting. The average amount owed to each taxpayer is $871.

Regional CPA and business advisory firm The Bonadio Group, headquartered here, has agreed to merge with Buffalo-based Fiddler & Co., one of upstate New York's oldest firms, in a union that will be effective in December.

Professional services are organic - they have lifecycles and stages that are distinctly their own. Marketing your offerings to the maximum effect should include efforts to extend the lifecycle of your offerings. Infuse your services with innovation to keep them living - and giving - longer.The typical accounting offering starts out in an embryonic stage, in which your objective is simply to attract an early adopter. Properly managed, the offering matures to what I call the "diamond-in-the-rough" stage. It's the realization that there's plenty of unrealized potential ... and plenty you need to do to uncover it. At this point, if you do it right, you're beginning to pick up traction.

$6.1B KATRINA RELIEF BILL HEADS TO PRESIDENT: Despite concerns over the rising deficit, both houses of Congress sent a $6.1 billion Katrina tax-relief bill to President Bush for his signature without a dissenting vote being cast.The House gave its approval on a 422-0 vote, and the Senate moved the legislation through without a roll call. At press time, the president was expected to sign it.

Internal Revenue Service Commissioner Mark W. Everson estimated that the current tax gap - the difference between taxes owed and collected - is $300 billion.That money is legitimately owed to the government and would do a lot of good ... if it could be collected.

As the fall season moves into high gear, a tax practitioner's thoughts should turn, at least in part, to year-end tax planning. Year's end provides a unique opportunity to evaluate how each client's tax liability is shaping up while there is still time to tweak transactions to maximize tax savings between the current and the upcoming year.Many year-end tax planning considerations and techniques should be repeated year after year. Deciding whether to accelerate deductions or defer income, as well as taking the time to consider all deduction opportunities before they slip away with the old year, are "ol' standards" that never change.