Practice Management

Sage Software Select resellers Blytheco Business Solutions and Macdonald Consulting Group have merged to form Blytheco LLC.

Long Island accounting firm Janover Rubinroit LLC has merged with tax and estate specialists Roberts, Rick & Moses LLP, in addition to relocating and expanding its New York offices.Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.

Responding to extension requests, restaurants and bars will have a few extra months -- until June 30 for this year only -- to elect to participate in the Internal Revenue Service’s Attributed Tip Income Program.

In a unanimous vote, 412-0, the House said that it will require a trio of accounting regulators to provide regular updates on the work being done to reduce the complexity of financial reporting and develop principles-based accounting standards.Through 2012, either the chairmen or other designees from the Securities and Exchange Commission, the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board and the Financial Accounting Standards Board will now provide annual testimony to the House Financial Services Committee.

A Congressman wants the Treasury and the Federal Trade Commission to explore shutting down a trio of Web sites that taxpayers could easily mistake for the Internal Revenue Service’s official site.Rep. Edward J. Markey, D-Mass., chairman of the House Energy and Commerce subcommittee on telecommunications and the Internet, sent a recent letter to the agency heads, as well as IRS Commissioner Mark Everson, arguing that the disclaimers at the bottom of the sites explaining that that they are not affiliated with the government, does not do enough to provide protection to consumers.

Any given week, it seems that there are plenty of PR people out there circulating trend surveys that -- to put it kindly -- are built on somewhat a dubious foundation.

I am a loyal Jet Blue flyer, a.k.a. customer. I got the below e-mail from, I believe, David Neeleman, president of Jet Blue. I wasn’t on any of the delayed flights but I sent him a response. It read, “That's okay, and I hope David gets this message.”

Of the nearly 2,500 missing children whose pictures have appeared in the paper versions of tax forms over the past five years, 87 have been located thanks to leads generated by taxpayers, according to a recent report from the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration.Since 2000, the Internal Revenue Service has partnered with the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children to help locate missing children by publishing their pictures in printed instructions and publications as part of the IRS Picture Them Home Program.

In a merger of companies that primarily provide accounting technology to schools, Dallas-based Tyler Technologies Inc. announced that it has acquired Bangor, Maine’s Advanced Data Systems Inc.Publicly-traded Tyler said that it had acquired all of ADS’s common stock, as well as an office building used in the business, for approximately $4.2 million in cash. ADS develops and sells fund accounting solutions, primarily in New England.

Tax prep giant H&R Block Inc. reported a third-quarter loss last week, pointing to its struggling mortgage lending arm even at the start of a strong beginning to the fourth quarter’s tax season -- where the company makes the bulk of its profits.Block said that it lost $44.7 million in the three months ending Jan. 31, compared to gains of $12.1 million in the same period a year ago. Revenue for the same quarter increased to $955.1 million, from $860.3 million.