The Latest

The Internal Revenue Service said it plans to send a second set of information packages to an estimated 5.2 million retirees and disabled veterans who have not yet filed their tax returns in order to give them their economic stimulus payments.

Ernst & Young renewed a multi-year licensing agreement with software developer Approva to offer risk controls analytics to clients.

The New York State Department of Taxation and Finance has reportedly sent letters to 182,000 individual taxpayers asking them to justify the tax refunds they have requested.

Handling your clients' payroll doesn't have to be a headache.

The trustees of the International Accounting Standards Committee have proposed changes in the International Accounting Standards Board that would expand the number of members, alter its geographic composition, and impose new oversight from government regulators.

More than 28 percent of large public companies are not fully meeting disclosure requirements for tax reserve estimates, according to a new report.

The Governmental Accounting Standards Board issued for comment a proposed technical bulletin to help government accountants determine the annual required contribution for post-employment benefits.

In Smokey and the Bandit, the classic 1970s beer and muscle-car chase-fest, the outlaw Burt Reynolds character is asked a series of cultural literacy questions by a comely hitchhiker played by Sally Field. Failing to answer them, he responds with a few of his own — all indigenous to his Southern roots — that she, in turn, can’t answer. He explains to her that sometimes the definition of smart depends on which part of the country you happen to be standing in.We can anticipate a similar chasm of ideology once presidential hopefuls Barack Obama and John McCain begin their expected series of debates — particularly when it comes to their tax platforms. Thus far, the two have clashed over a wide range of tax-centric topics, including Social Security, capital gains and, of course, the Bush tax cuts. The GOP senator from Arizona has accused his Democratic colleague from Illinois of mobilizing for the largest tax increase since World War II, while Obama, only half-jokingly, accuses McCain of running to serve out a third Bush term.

As the chief executives of four state CPA societies from different regions of the country, we have seen firsthand the positive impact that has been made on the issue of improving mobility for qualified CPAs to practice across state lines without notification or additional fees.We also know that the significant progress on improving mobility over the past two years did not happen by chance. Rather, it has been due to the hard work and energy of countless CPA volunteer leaders and staff within state CPA societies, state boards of accountancy, the American Institute of CPAs and the National Association of State Boards of Accountancy. The success on this important issue for the profession has clearly been a team effort and is a dramatic example of the progress that can be made when the profession harnesses its collective efforts and resources to focus on achieving a common goal.

Consideration of any tax reform for small business must take into account the difficulties small-business owners face when deciding how to structure their business and comply with the Tax Code’s complex requirements, said Dewey Martin, a Hampden, Maine-based CPA.Martin, who testified at the recent hearings before the Senate Finance Committee on business entities and small-business tax reform, is a small-business owner himself, as well as an advisor to 200-plus small-business owners and chair of the Accounting Department at Husson College in Bangor, Maine.