The Latest

A federal jury has awarded the government $428,532.49 in damages from a contractor who faked invoices for fixing Internal Revenue Service laptop computers.

Last year, we published for the second time a ranking of CPAs by AUM (Assets Under Management). The response was staggering. We more than doubled the prior year’s number and went over the 200 mark. We had two criteria for consideration: They must be a CPA firm that has a financial planning practice, even as a subsidiary or affiliate, and the financial planner in the office must hold a CPA credential. In the top list were 18 firms that were in “The Billion Dollar Club,” or as we called it, “Wealth Magnet Elite.” We had 87 firms were in “The $100+ Million Club” or “Wealth Magnet Select,” and then 37 in the “$50 Million Club.” In the eight-figure category that we deemed “Rising Stars,” we had another 40. We also delved beneath the surface of just a ranking and unearthed what share broker/dealers, wire-houses, financial services companies, and the like had. We went even further and revealed the areas of financial planning products that each firm recommended in basic categories such as IRAs, 401(k)s, mutual funds, life insurance, bonds, 529 plans, to name a few. The reaction from the accounting profession has been simply wonderful. No one had ever seen such a ranking before we did the first one in 2007 and it opened the door more. Firms clamored for this to be an annual event, and we are complying. We are contacting everyone on our list from last year for updates plus additional firms that have contacted us. The final list will be compiled on May 1 and we will publish the rankings in the July 2009 CPA Wealth Provider. We encourage you to participate. For a copy of the Survey Form, contact me by email (stuart.kahan@sourcemedia.com), or write to me at Source Media, One State Street

New York Governor David Paterson has signed a bill expanding the regulation of CPAs throughout the state.

If a firm already has as much work as it can handle and has difficulty finding competent staff, isn't it irresponsible to be looking for even more work? That question was posed to us at Accounting Tomorrow from Bill McGovern, who owns a full-service CPA firm in Manasquan, N.J.

A New York federal court judge has ruled that Deloitte & Touche must stand trial in a class-action suit over its Italian affiliate's audits of collapsed dairy processor Parmalat.

The Tax & Accounting business of Thomson Reuters has released new Checkpoint Tools to help accountants handle specialized engagements, risk assessments and internal controls.

The Baby Boom generation has been described as the pig in the python, meaning there were fewer people before and fewer people after this group, which has a lot of economic consequences. Start with staffing in the tax and accounting business.

An inspirational keynote on teamwork from renowned motivational speaker Pat Williams, an update on M&A activity among CPA firms and the induction of Clifton Gunderson chief executive Carl George into the Advisory Board Hall of Fame highlighted the opening day for the 8th annual Winning Is Everything conference here.

Over 33 million callers could not reach the Internal Revenue Service’s toll-free assistance number last year to ask about economic stimulus payments, and the IRS could get swamped again this year with calls.

A Republican congressman has introduced a bill that would provide all U.S. taxpayers with immunity from IRS penalties and interest, but the main goal seems to be tweaking his Democratic colleagues.