In brief

CCH SFS BUYS INTELLITAX

Kennesaw, Ga. - CCH Small Firm Services, part of Wolters Kluwer Tax and Accounting, has acquired IntelliTax, a tax software company formerly known as Orrtax. Terms of the deal were not disclosed. CCH SFS plans to discontinue IntelliTax and transition its 4,000 customers to its own tax software, TaxWise.

"We will offer training programs and they will be able to attend our online webinars for free," said CCH SFS vice of president of marketing Gene Goldenberg. "We will provide a custom conversion program to convert all their data, and we will provide them with free orientation assistance. We're not increasing the prices they're paying for IntelliTax."

CCH SFS will still support old versions of IntelliTax software, but it won't update the product this year. IntelliTax had been preparing a version that would ship later this year, but CCH SFS will instead ship customers its TaxWise software with the conversion program.

CCH SFS sees the acquisition as complementary to its products. "Quite simply, they were very capable competitors of our Small Firm Services products, particularly our TaxWise product line," said Goldenberg. - Michael Cohn

IRS WITHDRAWS FEDEX PENALTIES

Washington, D.C. - The Internal Revenue Service has withdrawn a tentative assessment of more than $319 million in tax penalties against FedEx.

In a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission, the delivery giant said that the IRS withdrew the tentative assessment in late October. The assessment is for tax and penalties for the 2002 calendar year of $319 million, plus interest against the company's subsidiary, FedEx Ground Package System Inc. It relates to the classification of FedEx Ground's drivers for employment tax purposes. The company calls them owner-operators; the IRS claims they are employees.

However, the case is not completely settled. FedEx said that the IRS is continuing its employment tax audit of FedEx Ground for the 2002 calendar year.

STATE TAX REVENUES PLUMMET

Washington, D.C. - States are getting pounded by the economy, with tax revenues in the third quarter among the worst in years, according to a new report.

The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities noted that collection has been slowing down for at least a year, but the new figures indicate steep declines across a variety of taxes all over. Of the 15 states surveyed, the median experienced a 5.5 percent decline in total tax revenue after adjusting for inflation. Only Michigan, which enacted a major tax increase, experienced revenue growth.

Sales tax revenue has been particularly hard hit, the CBPP noted. It fell in every one of the 15 states surveyed, with a median decline of 7.3 percent after adjusting for inflation. Personal income tax revenues are also down sharply.

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