Audit & Accounting

For years, the $7 trillion mutual fund industry had escaped major reform. But that was then, and this is now.

Many of the country's wealthiest people have not taken basic steps to protect their assets or mapped out an estate plan, according to a recent survey by wealth management firm PNC Advisors.

How would you like to be the primary financial coordinator for the wealthy families in your community? How would you like to be earning a healthy fee for this advice, a fee that goes far beyond completing tax returns? Does this sound too good to be true for small to midsized accounting?

In my last article, I discussed the above-the-line "education deduction" available for many individual taxpayers for qualified tuition and related expenses. Taxpayers eligible to take the education deduction often will also be eligible to take either the Hope Scholarship or Lifetime Learning Credits for the same expenses.

IRS ISSUES GUIDANCE FOR AUTOMATIC ROLLOVERS: The Internal Revenue Service has issued Notice 2005-5 providing guidance on the new automatic (or default) rollover rules for qualified retirement plans.

Two former accountants at WorldCom took the stand in Federal District Court in Manhattan in the criminal trial of the company's former chief executive, Bernard Ebbers.

Just in time for consideration by President Bush's new bipartisan panel on tax reform, National Taxpayer Advocate Nina Olson told Congress that the complexity of the Internal Revenue Code is the most serious problem facing both taxpayers and the Internal Revenue Service.

What's the difference between Enron and the United States government?

President George W. Bush has named two former senators to lead a new nine-member bipartisan panel charged with arriving at options to reform the tax code.

In an effort to aid smaller publicly traded businesses with internal controls compliance, the Committee of Sponsoring Organizations said that it would offer online guidance for internal controls assessment by the summer.