The Latest

A long-standing decision against building supplies retailer Menard, in which $20 million in compensation to its founder and CEO was ruled a dividend and therefore non-deductible, has been reversed by the Seventh Circuit Court.

Automated sales tax solutions provider SpeedTax and CPA and business advisory firm Wipfli have partnered in a venture to deliver SpeedTax’s software-as-a-service sales tax applications to Wipfli’s Microsoft Dynamics GP customers.

The average settlement as a result of securities class-action litigation dropped more than 50 percent in 2008, to $31.2 million, according to a report from Cornerstone Research.

Prophix Software, a provider of business intelligence applications and services headquartered here, has partnered with BI and performance management consultancy Paradigm Analytics, whereupon Paradigm will offer Prohix’s Corporate Performance Management applications to its PerformancePoint Server and ERP customers.

There was a lot of debate about the level of attendance at Convergence, the Microsoft Dynamics user conference being held this week in New Orleans.

Bernard Madoff pleaded guilty to 11 charges in connection with a gigantic Ponzi scheme that swindled his clients out of up to $65 billion.

An Arizona tax preparer has been charged with diverting thousands of dollars’ worth of his clients’ tax refunds to his own bank account.

A trio of related companies have filed suit to stop the Securities and Exchange Commission from infringing the trademark of their auditing software product. Former SEC Chairman Christopher Cox said last August that the SEC would develop a new interactive financial statement filing system to replace its old Edgar system. The new system, known as Interactive Data Electronic Applications, or IDEA, would rely on Extensible Business Reporting Language, or XBRL, data tag technology, which the SEC is beginning to require large public companies to use for their filings.

The Internal Revenue Service has begun offering self-assistance options at some of its offices that give taxpayers limited access to computers and phones so they can reach the IRS’s Web site and toll-free phone lines without waiting in a long line, but those efforts can still be frustrating.

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