Practice Management

A complaint has been lodged with the Government Accountability Office that could again stall the Internal Revenue Service's plan to subcontract cases to private debt collection firms.

The Internal Revenue Service is considering a proposal to loosen the privacy standards of federal income tax returns. The change could allow accountants and other tax return preparers to sell information from individual returns to marketers and data brokers, according to published reports.

The Sage Group has a deal in place to acquire Norwegian software and accounting firm Visma for approximately $584 million.

Congress has begun to focus in on reforms for the nation's health care tax policy -- a move that could impact hundreds of billions of dollars a year in cherished tax breaks for individuals and employers.

The Internal Revenue Service has issued guidance describing 26 frivolous arguments that taxpayers should avoid when filing their returns.

CCH, a Wolters Kluwer business and a provider of tax and accounting law, software and services, bolstered its paperless workflow process with the acquisition of a pair of automation tools from Brandenton, Fla.-based DocuMatters.

CPA and business advisory firm Hill, Barth and King, has merged in Presque Isle Capital Management with its financial planning unit HBK Sorce Advisory LLC.

How well do you manage the client management process?It's a question I often ask clients I work with. While most firms pay attention to various aspects of the process, many firms fail to understand that it is an interrelated process, and hence fail to properly manage the entire process. I strongly believe that the ultimate success of your firm is determined by how well you manage the client management process.

IRS REQUESTS $10.6B BUDGET FOR 2007: The Internal Revenue Service requested a budget of $10.6 billion for the 2007 fiscal year, an increase of 1.4 percent from the current year's budget. Nearly $10.6 billion would come from direct appropriations through the Treasury Department. An additional $135 million would come from the IRS's new user fee revenue, for a total operating level of $10.7 billion.Among the IRS operations receiving more funding would be enforcement activities and taxpayer services. Enforcement has proposed funding at nearly $7 billion, a 2 percent increase from the 2006 enacted levels; taxpayer services has proposed funding at more than $3.5 billion, a 1.4 percent increase from 2006.

There's a new area of controversy at the Internal Revenue Service, and it surrounds the recently released 2005 annual report from the Taxpayer Advocate Service -the independent organization within the IRS designated as the liaison between the IRS and taxpayers with problems.While the Taxpayer Advocate is required to identify at least 20 serious problems in her annual report, particular attention has been given to one topic in this year's report: the IRS's Criminal Investigation Questionable Refund Program.