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Adding to its continuing professional education portfolio, Thomson Tax & Accounting has acquired AuditWatch, a high-profile audit training and process improvement consulting firm headquartered here.Terms were not disclosed. The deal became official Nov. 15.

EUROPE MOVES TO ACCEPT U.S. GAAP

Welcome back. On behalf of myself and the staff at Accounting Today, we hope you've enjoyed both a healthy and a happy holiday season.Last year, myriad changes in the profession kept our editorial team hopping with new regulations, top-level executive changes and the traditional flurry of merger and acquisition activity.

Nobody that I have seen or read has picked up so far on the gaping hole that just appeared in General Motors' September 30th balance sheet - some $41 billion more or less. (At that level who cares about a billion or two?) The deficit net worth suggests that even if you added back the total of all GM dividends paid over the last 100 years, you would still have a deficit.Put another way, this suggests that, just like the airline industry, in 100 years General Motors has never made a true profit. Isn't that an interesting thought? Further, isn't it somewhat significant that no analysts have commented on the huge deficit? Just how important is the balance sheet, as compared to the profit and loss statement, if nobody is paying attention?

CCH INTROS TAX INCENTIVES FINDERCCH has debuted a Web-based tool designed to find local incentives that can reduce income, property, and sales and use taxes, as well as identify enterprise zones and non-tax financial incentives. The Business Incentives Navigator on the CCH Tax Research Network allows users to search for statewide and location-based incentives. Users select an industry, followed by an incentive category such as investment, job creation, or research and development. Then they can select one or more jurisdictions.

SUN HEALTHCARE JETTISONS E&YSun Healthcare Group, an Irvine, Calif.-based provider of specialty health services primarily to seniors, has dismissed its auditor, Big Four firm Ernst & Young, and named PricewaterhouseCoopers as its new independent accountant.

As critics, we have been asked by others in frustration, "Is there anything in GAAP financial statements that you guys consider to be useful?" Up until now, our smug answer has always been, "Only the cash balance!"Alas, it turns out we were wrong ... .

By now, the excitement of receiving college acceptance letters is likely to have been long ago replaced by the shock of the tuition bills that follow enrollment. Or the joy of a child's graduating from college - and no longer incurring tuition - is eclipsed by the obligation to repay student loans. As families scramble to get the largest grants and lowest interest rates available, they should not overlook the tax implications of the arrangements they make.The tax breaks fall into two categories: ones for paying the education costs themselves, and deductions for paying interest on loans used to pay the bills. Most of the tax provisions are restricted to those with incomes below specified amounts, and those amounts vary from one tax provision to another. This creates additional confusion for families attempting tax planning and increases their need for professional guidance.

FIXED-INCOME ANNUITY HELPS RETIREMENT INCOMEMixing a fixed-income annuity into a retirement income account provides greater long-term wealth for investors than a portfolio of equity and bond investments alone, according to a study by MassMutual Financial.

Lots of businesses are using entry-level accounting software bought at retail, and find that these packages do the job nicely. At some point, however, it's likely that your clients' businesses will grow to the point where these store-bought solutions no longer do the trick.There are lots of reasons why this can happen. One of the more frequent reasons is that there are more staff in the business who need simultaneous access to the accounting application. Most of the entry-level systems available today are limited to only a few simultaneous users, which presents a problem if you have a client who needs to provide access to 10, 20 or even more users.