The Latest

If you think you understand IAS 39, "Financial Instruments: Recognition. and Measurement," then you haven’t read it, according to Sir David Tweedie, chairman of the International Accounting Standards Board.

Is Intuit on its way to becoming a major player in health care? Actually, one person not asking that question is the company’s CEO Steve Bennett who predicts that in five to 10 years Intuit’s healthcare software products will be bigger than the rest of the company. Bennett made that prediction in early March at the Morgan Stanley Technology Conference. Bennett told attendees that he and company founder Scott Cook now spend 10 percent of their time on health care Currently, Intuit’s entry in this market is the Quicken Medical Expense Manager, which is designed to let consumers track communications with insurance plans so that they know what they have paid and what they haven’t. As Bennett says, this isn’t something that is going to happen in the next two years. What Intuit is doing, however, is important in showing how the companies in the financial space are quickly evolving. Sage Software plunged into the medical market last year with the purchase of the Emdeon practice management business. While Intuit and Sage are taking different courses—Intuit is going after the consumers, Sage after professional practices—it underscores the potential they see in a business in which many operations aren’t fully automated, if at all. And of course it’s natural to link these to the banking and payment businesses that each company has entered. Intuit has its QuickBooks Merchants Services and Sage acquired Verus Financial Services at a premium price. The medical business is also behind much of the market in accepting credit cards, but is expected to catch up rapidly. Bennett’s message to the people at the Morgan Stanley conference was it’s quite a bit early to purchase his company’s stock based on its activities in health care. But keep your eyes open.

Between January 2003 and June 2006, at least 490 Internal Revenue Service computers -- some containing sensitive data -- were lost or stolen, according to a new report from the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration.TIGTA said that the missing computers, and other data-sensitive equipment, were lost or stolen in 387 separate incidents. Worse, in more than 75 percent of the cases, IRS employees failed to notify the agency’s computer security office, which could have helped negate the risk to taxpayers.

The federal government is suing the leader of a national movement that claims most Americans are not required to pay income tax.

A survey of chief executive compensation figures found that the median year-over-year percentage increase in pay was just short of 10 percent for 2006.

In a decidedly non-scientific survey, Money Management International found that tax time can be very different for consumers born under different sun signs.For example, the MMI survey found that Libras expecting a refund plan to receive an average refund of $2,200, while Aries are expecting a significant $800 less.

The Securities and Exchange Commission endorsed the recommendations of the agency's professional staff to eliminate, “waste and duplication,” in companies’ compliance with the Sarbanes-Oxley Act.The change is particularly aimed at providing relief for smaller companies.

Alleging pervasive fraud, the government has filed civil injunction suits against five corporations that operate Jackson Hewitt tax prep franchises, as well as 24 individuals who manage or work at the franchises, the Justice Department and the Internal Revenue Service announced.According to the four lawsuits -- filed in federal courts in Chicago, Atlanta, Detroit and Raleigh, N.C. -- the corporations operate under franchise agreements with Jackson Hewitt Tax Services Inc. of Parsippany, N.J., the nation’s second-largest tax preparation firm. Collectively, the suits allege that the businesses cost more than $70 million in losses to the U.S. Treasury.

The Internal Revenue Service is requesting applicants for both its Information Reporting Program Advisory Committee and its Electronic Tax Administration Advisory Committee.

As part of its audit of the Internal Revenue Service’s 2005-06 financial statements, the Government Accountability Office took a look at what the agency was doing to correct previously reported information security weaknesses.