Practice Management

The Financial Accounting Standards Board has issued a pair of proposed fair value staff positions written to provide additional guidance regarding measurements and impairments of securities, after coming under pressure at a congressional hearing to ease mark-to-market accounting standards.

Don't cut that marketing budget -- or at least think twice before you get out the scalpel.

Accounting Today queried a selection of firms and asked marketing leaders for their single best strategy that raised their profile -- as well as their insight into accounting marketing trends. Thalia Zetlin "It was a niche-specific strategy with a particularly timely focus. The economy is on everyone's mind. We empathize with clients and we're taking action. Leveraging the firm's brainpower and sensitivity to current and anticipated client needs, the firm is producing guidance to help clients move through a difficult time. We zero-in on the business and personal issues in each sector. The media is picking up on our timely insights and, in this interactive world, one mention leads to many others, and we're seeing a tremendous surge in media exposure -- further distinguishing us in the marketplace."

A federal grand jury has indicted a California tax preparer for claiming he was an enrolled agent with the Internal Revenue Service.

CPA firm Hill, Barth & King has acquired Stikelether & Associates of Fort Pierce, Fla., expanding the firm’s presence on the state’s “Treasure Coast.”

Switzerland’s longstanding banking secrecy laws are about to become as holey as Swiss cheese after authorities caved in to pressure from international tax authorities.

Taxpayers who do not file their return and pay their tax by the due date may have to pay a penalty. Here are seven things you should know about failure-to-file and failure-to-pay penalties, according to the Internal Revenue Service. 1. The failure-to-file penalty is generally more than the failure-to-pay penalty. So if you cannot pay all the taxes you owe, you should still file your tax return and explore other payment options in the meantime.

Provisions in the recently signed $787 billion economic stimulus package - the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 - will have a ripple effect across all industries, according to experts.

Philadelphia-based Parente Randolph has combined with Lazar Levine & Felix in a $16 million merger, expanding its footprint in New Jersey and New York City. As part of the deal, Lazar Lipton Valuation Services, an affiliate of the firm, will become a division of Parente Randolph. The deal will increase Parente to 650 members, including 82 principals."[The merger] really started with our strategic planning process several years ago," said Parente Randolph chairman and chief executive Robert Ciaruffoli. "We made the decision to become the go-to firm in the mid-Atlantic region, which we defined from New York City to Washington, D.C."

Is your firm interested in entering the federal government market? In an uncertain economy, the federal government can be a reliable source of revenues, often with good margins. A terrible economy, ironically, might be about the best time to try, due to a confluence of events - an unending spate of bailout and stimulus initiatives, coupled with the new administration's strong demands for transparency and accountability.Just administering the programs will require the Treasury Department and other branches of the government to use thousands of additional auditors and other accounting professionals. The requirement for extra hands on deck will be compounded by what the chairman of the House Appropriations Committee called an "unprecedented level of accountability" that will be part of the bailout and stimulus programs going forward.