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Congressional leaders have struck a $150 billion deal on an economic stimulus plan that would give most taxpayers rebate checks of $600 to $1,200.

New York Governor Eliot Spitzer's proposed budget contains a provision that would tax marijuana at a rate of $3.50 per gram and controlled substances like cocaine at $200 per gram.

The Twin Cities of Minneapolis/St. Paul will continue to face a competitive job market for finance and accounting professionals this year, according to a new study.

The Justice Department has sued a Dallas-area income tax preparer to bar him and his business from preparing federal income tax returns for others.

The Internal Revenue Service is running out of storage space for the copies of documents it stores on cases closed by its Office of Appeals, according to a report by the Treasury Department's Inspector General.

President Bush encouraged Congress to pass the economic stimulus package he agreed to with House leaders without adding extra provisions.

So, let me ask you something. Do you believe that a person's approach to financial planning should be based on the future well-being of the family or on meeting a set of financial objectives? By the same token, do you really want to reach financial independence? Although these two questions appear relatively simple on the surface, the answers you may give can vary greatly depending on your sex. At least, that is what the results of a survey by the Desjardins Group, Canada's largest integrated cooperative financial group uncovered. This was a survey taken in the fall of 2007 among a group of 1,400 respondents that included an equal number of women and men. It was designed to measure the differences between the two groups’ concerns and attitudes on financial planning. The survey had 40 questions that covered ease of discussing financial planning with an advisor, the importance given to the various aspects of financial planning, and the understanding of financial planning vocabulary. "Even if the average spread between men's and women's answers is relatively narrow (seven points), the trend that emerges from our study shows a significant difference in terms of the approach,” says Eric Lemieux, vice-president, Wealth Management at Desjardins. “Women see financial planning as a whole that involves the well-being of the family, while men have a more compartmentalized approach, based on fixed objectives. This observation confirms the accuracy of our orientation, which is based on personalized, value-added service,” According to the survey, women appear more concerned about the well-being of others and more worried than men about the idea of being a burden on the family. In effect, they are more concerned than men by such things as financing the children's education, the importance of having a budget, and increasing the value of investments in the short term. They are also more aware than men about the importance of having a notarized will and a health mandate in case of inability. Desjardins notes that men's targeted approach comes across mainly in their greater concern for reaching financial objectives, for the tax consequences of their financial decisions, and for their retirement planning strategy. In fact, there are also more men than women who say they are solely responsible for their decisions and are consequently less inclined to ask for advice. As to the language of financial planning, this also seems more familiar to men. They were more likely to understand expressions such as "investor profile," "investment horizon,” and "net worth.” However, keep the following in mind: the more general concept of "financial independence" is understood equally well by women as by men, while women are more likely than men to desire such independence. "This survey is a tool that can help Desjardins Financial Planning Advisors to better understand members, both men and women, and to better accompany them on the path to financial security for themselves and their families," adds Lemieux, speaking for an organization with overall assets of $147 billion, as at September 30, 2007. They must know what they are talking about, eh?

The Financial Accounting Standards Board has agreed to defer the effective date of Interpretation No. 48, "Accounting for Uncertainty in Income Taxes," for nonpublic entities to years beginning after Dec. 15, 2007.

Are Do-It-Yourself tax return products stealing your potential clients? Some professional preparers feel that way. Intuit surveyed accountants about their concerns and retaining/attracting new clients came in near the top. The customer studies found that tax-driven firms tend to lose about 12 tax clients per year for a variety of reasons, including life changes such as marriage, divorce or death. The percentage of self-prepared returns remained steady from the 2001 through 2006 tax years—at roughly 38 percent, compared to 47 percent prepared professionally and 15 percent in stores. But the most notable trend was that people who previously prepared their returns manually were moving to software as opposed to professionals, cutting the percentage of manual returns roughly in half to 11 percent. Intuit doesn’t have to concern itself a great deal with this trend given the fact that it owns TurboTax, a consumer product with 14 million customers. But it created a business division dedicated exclusively to the needs of accountants a few months ago and in response to firms expressing the need to “replenish” their client bases, introduced online marketing tools to help them reach prospects on several search sites, such as Google and Yahoo Local. The question shouldn’t be how your vendor can help you with this problem however, but rather how you can help yourself. After all, the younger generation of Do-It-Yourselfers might start convincing their Baby Boomer parents to follow their lead, saving money on preparer fees. I overhead a conversation last week in which a single 30-year-old TurboTax user did just that. He was on the phone with his mother, a recent widow who had previously relied on her husband to handle the tax return and who was concerned with possible errors that could result from taking on the responsibility herself. “Just use TurboTax. It’s so easy, there’s no way anyone could mess it up,” he told her. When he hung up, I asked him whether she was aware of all the things to consider when filing on behalf of a deceased spouse: whether to file jointly or separate, that she needs to write “deceased” on the top of the tax return and where to sign her own name on her husband’s return. Not surprisingly, he was unaware of these factors because he only accounts for himself. But I bet a ton of returns get filed incorrectly every year due to similar factors and the filers’ lack of knowledge that such rules even exist. If any of your clients have lost a spouse, moved, had a child or experienced another significant life change that could alter the way they fill out their returns this year, that translates into an opportunity for you to reach out to them by demonstrating you can add value—and that you know and care about what’s going on in their personal lives. Many of your clients haven’t received their W-2s yet and may be on the fence about whether to give you repeat business. There’s nothing wrong with a bit of self-promotion to help sway them toward your front door.

Experts discussed how to share strategies on driving firm profitability and growth at this month's New York Metro Roundtable at the Friars Club in Manhattan.