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CPA2Biz Inc., the Web portal of the American Institute of CPAs, reported its third consecutive year of profitability at the institute's Fall Council Meeting, held here.

Starting salaries for accounting and finance professionals will increase an average of 4.3 percent in the year ahead, predicted the 2008 Salary Guide from staffing firm Robert Half International.

Software developer Paisley has announced an updated version of its governance, risk and compliance software, Paisley Enterprise GRC.

The Public Company Accounting Oversight Board released a report on the issues it has identified from inspections of U.S. firms that audit 100 or fewer public companies.

Because of the thousands upon thousands of press releases that I have seen, very few impress or take me by surprise. But the one at www.healthsouth.com/who_we_are/press_releases.asp did just that. In the release, HealthSouth Corporation announced that it has received a $440 million tax recovery from the IRS “for overstatements of taxable income attributable to financial fraud perpetrated by members of prior management.” This recovery includes a $296 million tax refund for the tax years 1996 through 1999, and $144 million of associated interest income.

If you think quantum change is already happening in the accounting profession, just wait and see what a number of consultants, practitioners and society heads have forecast for the future.To mark its 20th anniversary issue, Accounting Today elicited predictions from experts on what they feel will be on the profession's agenda for the next 20 years - and beyond.

REGULATIONS ISSUED ON PRACTICING BEFORE IRS

Despite the fact that my job entails frequent use of the written word, I've never been comfortable writing birthday or anniversary cards. I usually let my wife and children fill in the inside jacket with sentimental prose, which somehow generates all the warmth of a plumber's wrench when I have a go at it.However, one special birthday/anniversary I'll gladly wax poetic on is Accounting Today's 20th.

W. DOUG SPRAGUEHe was born William Douglas Sprague. On one occasion, I heard someone call him "Bill" and he seemed to grimace. He was not a "Bill" - he was a "Doug."

I could not agree more with Mr. Bose's letter to the editor ("No place for politics," Sept. 10-23, 2007, page 6).In fact, it echoes the letter you published several months ago by my friend and colleague Kal Barson, a CPA here in New Jersey.