Audit & Accounting

Financial planning isn't magic, but it is an art as much as it is a science. Different planning practices deal with different kinds of investment vehicles. But regardless of the vehicle, financial plans are rarely static.That's because clients' investment goals and resources change over time. What was right for last year's goals may not be right today, and will almost certainly change tomorrow.

FIDELITY LAUNCHES WEB-BASED FP TOOLFidelity Investments has introduced the Fidelity Retirement Income Evaluator, a Web-based planning tool designed to help advisors create and manage retirement income plans for their clients, as well as build a more efficient and profitable retirement business model.

Three venerable accounting firms in South Carolina have combined operations.

Shortly after Sept. 11, 2001, America's financial institution auditors - internal and external - were called to the trenches of the war against terrorism.Under Section 352 of the USA Patriot Act, they have been required to verify that their institutions have adequate risk assessment and prevention systems in place.

While friends and family are more concerned with the holidays at hand, tax practitioners are taking last-minute steps to ensure that they and their clients have a successful tax season.Training people to be able to staff the offices properly is key for Peoples Income Tax Inc., said chief executive Charles McCabe. "There just isn't a supply of qualified preparers out there who are willing to work for three months. And if someone is available, you have to ask why they are available - you don't want to hire someone else's problem."

FASB DELAYS FIN 48 FOR PRIVATE COS.Norwalk, Conn. - The Financial Accounting Standards Board has decided to defer the effective date for FASB Interpretation No. 48, Accounting for Uncertainty in Income Taxes, for nonpublic entities.

The House has voted to approve a $78 billion bill that would provide a temporary fix to prevent the alternative minimum tax from spreading to about 23 million more taxpayers this coming tax season.Congress was under pressure to pass an AMT fix in time to allow the Internal Revenue Service to produce the necessary tax forms without delaying processing and refunds. However, in a sign of the controversy over provisions to raise taxes on some high-income taxpayers and close loopholes, no Republicans voted for the bill and eight Democrats voted against it.

Creating opportunities for mid-tier audit firms to enter the international market could include relaxing ownership rules to permit investment from outsiders - non-accounting professionals - according to an independent study prepared for the European Commission.The report suggested that such a revision would result in opportunities for the mid-level firms to cope with the needs of larger clients, most of whom are currently served by the Big Four.

The current wrangling over the alternative minimum tax is a symptom of the larger problems with having a Tax Code built on patchwork over nearly a century, to the point that it resembles a Rube Goldberg contraption, according to David A. Lifson, president of the New York State Society of CPAs and a co-managing partner at New York-based Hays & Co. LLP.Lifson, who recently testified before the Select Revenue Measures Subcommittee of the House Ways and Means Committee on the AMT, also chaired the NYSSCPA Committee on Tax Reform that issued a comprehensive proposal to revise the current tax system.

One week after Ways and Means Committee Chairman Rep. Charles Rangel, D-N.Y., introduced his massive, dream tax reform proposal, and after acknowledging that that proposal had no chance of passage this year, Chairman Rangel introduced a more modest stop-gap proposal, H.R. 3996, including primarily one-year fixes for expiring provisions and some proposals to address the mortgage crisis.Most commentators seem to feel that this legislation has a fairly good chance of passing this year in something close to its present form.