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One month after four employees of Big Four firm Ernst & Young were charged with conspiracy to commit tax fraud, a former employee of the audit firm has pled guilty to similar charges. Dallas-based E&Y employee Belle Six entered her plea in Federal District Court in Manhattan. Six, who worked in the firm's Viper Group that created and sold tax shelters, will, according to her agreement, forfeit some $13 million she received as compensation.

In a deal that would expend its network support and security services, high-volume Sage reseller Net@Work has acquired Werkflow LLC for undisclosed terms. Werkflow founder and president Christina Strack will join Net@Work as director of sales for the company's infrastructure business. In that capacity she will oversee the network-side vendor relationships (such as Citrix, Cisco, etc.) and spearhead Net@Work's recent partnerships with Mimosa Systems and Equallogic.

Democratic members of Congress have introduced a plan that would close a tax loophole that allows tens of thousands of dollars in tax write-offs for only the largest luxury SUVs. The bill introduced by Reps. Allyson Schwartz, D-Pa., Rahm Emanuel, D-Ill., and Earl Blumenauer, D-Ore., who all serve on the Ways and Means Committee, as well as Rep. Ed Markey, D-Mass., chairman of the Select Committee on Energy Independence and Global Warming, would fix a provision in the Tax Code that provides an additional tax incentive for the luxury market of SUVs weighing over 6,000 lbs. Originally intended to help businesses buy necessary heavy-duty work vehicles, the "Hummer Tax Loophole" has for years allowed write-offs of anywhere from $100,000 to the current figure of $25,000 for the purchase of the largest, most gas-guzzling luxury SUVs, even as concerns over gas prices and dependence on oil have grown. The change would not affect legitimate business investments in trucks or vans, such as plumber and contractor trucks, farm vehicles, construction vehicles, flatbed trucks, cement mixers, and a variety of other vehicles as designated by the IRS. "This bill fixes a perverse, unintended incentive to buy the biggest and most polluting vehicle on the market," said Blumenauer.

Although Capitol Hill insiders such as Karl Rove, Paul Begala, Terry McAuliffe and George Will garnered marquee billing at the American Institute of CPAs Spring Meeting of Council, profession-centric issues, such as staff recruitment and the alternative minimum tax, reverberated the most with attendees at the three-day confab here.

Sage Software had plenty to celebrate this year - and they threw a party to prove it.

Companies that have integrated customer relationship management applications define the tool as a mix of strategy and technology."Certainly, those that have a well-thought-through CRM strategy and executive buy-in have the best chance of successfully implementing their strategies," said John McDonnell, vice president and general manager at information and workflow solutions provider LexisNexis. "Relationship intelligence, and all of the contacts and relationships that company professionals have in the marketplace, gives you the ability to really leverage that information to put together much more focused and targeted business development and marketing initiatives."

NEW 404 GUIDANCE, PCAOB AUDIT STANDARD

During my four-year period of underachievement known as college, an economics teacher, Mr. Walgrebe, once handed out an assignment requiring us to map out a business model and concept that you could present to a bank in hopes of getting a loan. Normally, an assignment like this would have thrilled me like a sprained ankle, but in a rare moment of academic motivation, I rushed to the library and began my research. I even went to one of the loan officers at a local bank branch and explained my mission.

There has been a proliferation of constituencies targeting the accounting profession. In civil actions, accounting firms face increasingly large claims by a variety of plaintiffs, including shareholders, bondholders, lenders and other creditors, litigation and bankruptcy trustees, and clients.

The vast majority - 88 percent - of small employers used a tax professional to prepare their most recent federal tax return. For those employers who employ 20 or more people, the percentage using a tax professional increased to 95 percent, according to the National Federation of Independent Business.