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A recent report from the federal accounting industry watchdog agency, the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board, found that the incidence of deficient audits performed by the Big Four accounting firms doubled in 2010, reaching a horrifying 33 percent.

The Internal Revenue Service has released its annual update identifying the circumstances under which the disclosure on a taxpayer's income tax return with respect to an item or a position is adequate for the purposes of reducing the understatement of income tax and avoiding the tax return preparer penalty.

With the alternative minimum tax still unpatched for this year and estimated to spread to an additional 28 million households next tax season unless Congress acts to avert the fiscal cliff, newly released statistics from the Internal Revenue Service reveal that even the patched AMT hit millions more households in 2010 than in 2009.

The Internal Revenue Service and the Treasury Department have released their 2012-2013 priority guidance plan outlining 317 projects that they plan to prioritize from July 2012 to June 2013 in providing guidance and regulations to tax practitioners.

Eide Bailly LLP has acquired the Littleton, Colo.-based boutique tax firm Clark & Srsich LLC. The firm’s newest addition will provide services from the firm’s Golden, Colo., office.

The National Society of Accountants has called on the IRS to immediately revise the Circular 230 provision that states that tax preparers may not give tax advice that is not directly related to prepared tax returns.

Cloud accounting software provider Xero Inc. has raised $49 million from existing U.S. investors primarily to further fund their global expansion and growth towards 1 million customers.

Top 100 Firm Mauldin & Jenkins promotes two managers to partner in its Florida and Georgia locations.

Two former Ernst & Young LLP tax attorneys, Richard Shapiro and Martin Nissenbaum, won reversal of their convictions for developing illegal tax shelters sold by the accounting firm from 1999 to 2001.

Hewlett-Packard Co.’s directors and auditors, along with Autonomy Corp. founder Mike Lynch, were sued by investors over alleged misstatements related to last year’s purchase of the British software maker.

Congressional Republicans dug in to fight President Barack Obama’s plan to skirt the fiscal cliff, rejecting his tax-and-spending proposal as the president heads out today to sell it to the American public.

Public Company Accounting Oversight Board chairman James Doty told an audience of auditors that the public is expecting more from the audit profession and warned firms against skimping on audit quality.

What to do when your clients receive one of the IRS’s four new business income under-reporting letters

The IRS has updated procedures to strengthen the Individual Taxpayer Identification Number program requirements.

Andrew Cohen, a member of WeiserMazars LLP’s executive committee and partner-in-charge of the Long Island practice, has been elected vice-chair of the AICPA Joint Trial Board for 2013/2014.

The Income Tax School has launched a Web site of more than 70 tax courses and products, plus many free resources for tax professionals. ITS said the move was in response to the new IRS regulations for tax preparers and the corresponding growing demand for tax education.

CALIFORNIA

Recent network memberships, awards, new Web sites and more

Two lucky winners in Arizona and Missouri will be able to claim the record-shattering $580 million Powerball jackpot after Wednesday night’s drawing, but they will also face taxes and need financial advice.

Last week I moderated an Accounting Today Web Seminar on Tax Office Workflow.