Practice and client management

A bipartisan pair of U.S. senators from Florida, Democrat Bill Nelson and Republican Marco Rubio, have introduced a bill that would simplify the tax-filing requirements of senior citizens.

The American Institute of CPAs plans to support a new tax simplification bill introduced earlier this month by a pair of congressmen that would make it easier to satisfy the tax-reporting requirements of workers who are employed in multiple jurisdictions.

Travel and expense management service provider Concur has launched the Concur Advisor Program, which is designed to provide accountants in public practice and small-to-medium-sized business consultants with products, training and support to better counsel their clients on expense policies and processes.

Senator Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, has written to White House officials questioning why big banks are benefiting from a Small Business Lending Fund that was supposed to be used to help finance small businesses.

CBIZ and its affiliated firm Mayer Hoffman McCann have started a blog dedicated to construction accounting topics.

A group of six Republican senators has written to IRS Commissioner Doug Shulman asking about the agency’s recent move to impose gift taxes on donors to tax-exempt political advocacy organizations.

The Internal Revenue Service cannot determine whether taxpayers claiming Residential Energy Credits are actually entitled to them, according to a new government report that found the tax credits going to hundreds of prisoners and minors.

Internal Revenue Service Commissioner Doug Shulman described the IRS’s efforts at improving the agency’s technology to detect tax fraud and ferret out unreported sources of income during a speech Wednesday.

ParenteBeard LLC has launched a sustainability practice to work with clients on establishing sustainability initiatives at their organizations.

Senate Democrats failed to muster enough votes to advance a bill that would have eliminated tax credits for the five largest oil and gas companies.

The Internal Revenue Service has begun sending letters to political donors asking why they didn’t report their 2008 donations on their gift tax forms.

Not all of the state legislation drawing attention from accountants this year involves taxes (see States Enact Flurry of Tax Changes). Indeed, some of the most closely watched bills hit even closer to home for the profession.

Accountants across the nation barely had time to recover from the 2011 tax season before being buried under a blizzard of new tax law changes approved by dozens of state legislatures from Harrisburg to Honolulu.

To mark Small Business Week, the Internal Revenue Service is highlighting the tax benefits and resources available to small businesses this year.

The United States reached its statutory debt limit of $14.3 trillion on Monday and the Treasury Department took steps to create additional headroom to avoid a government default.

The Growth Partnership has introduced a new survey tool designed to help accounting firms assess their marketing efforts.

Roni Deutch, who heavily advertised her tax problem resolution services on television, has closed her law firm and surrendered her legal license after a California judge froze her assets.

Several years before the birth of the Tea Party movement, I caught one of the local town workers stuffing my mailbox full of anti-income tax materials that included scores of inaccurate legal references and precedents where the courts agreed with a plaintiff who refused to pay taxes.

The House Ways and Means Committee held a hearing on the current structure of international tax rules and how they might be hampering American employers in global markets.

A long list of organizations representing small and closely held businesses sent a letter to the leaders of the tax-writing committees in Congress urging them to include them in any upcoming tax reform legislation.