The Latest

A New Orleans court has overturned the class-certification of a group of shareholders looking to sue major investment banks for more than $40 billion to cover the banks’ alleged role in Enron Corp.’s accounting fraud.

A new partnership in New Milford, Conn., has been doing business as Dumas Estate and Tax Management since the start of 2007.

Everyone has a story of the email they accidentally sent to the wrong recipient, or the computer that crashed and lost an entire day’s worth of work.The disaster recovery industry has proven to be a lucrative one in the age of information, and recent snafus at the Alaska Department of Revenue and the Canada Revenue Agency only serve to underscore that problems can happen -- and illustrate the different ways in which an organization can be prepared for the worst-case scenario.

One year down, three more to go.KPMG has approved San Diego’s financial statements for the city’s 2003 fiscal year, issuing a clean audit opinion letter last week. In the culmination of a three-year audit process, the Big Four firm issued 66 restatements -- covering wrongly recorded debt, property and investments -- that totaled nearly $1.8 billion.

Although I have been in professional publishing and writing for tax practitioners for over 30 years, a good Internal Revenue Service letter ruling or a Tax Court decision still excites me. This is especially true when they are taxpayer victories that tax practitioners can use to benefit clients that are similarly situated.

Carlin, Charron & Rosen, a regional CPA and business advisory firm in New England, has ended its merger negotiations with accounting firm consolidator UHY Advisors.

Midwestern regional firm Clifton Gunderson has acquired Chavarria Dunne & Lamey LLC of Albuquerque, N.M.

Citing pressures created by the nation's current and projected budget deficit, a growing long-term fiscal imbalance and a heavier workload that may impair its ability to serve its mission to Congress, the Government Accountability Office has requested a 2008 budget of $530 million – an 8.5 percent rise over the previous year’s funding levels.

Financial and accounting services staffer AccountAbilities Inc. has agreed to acquire California-based ReStaff Services, a staffing company that operates under the name Staffing.com and generates annual revenues of roughly $20 million.

Financial services conglomerate JPMorgan is expanding JPMorgan E-Tax — its Internet-based tax service providing institutional investors with global tax intelligence, rates and breaking news.