Practice and client management

A Florida prison inmate who allegedly ran a scheme to defraud the Internal Revenue Service of approximately $115,000 in tax refunds has pleaded guilty.

House Financial Services Committee Chairman Barney Frank, D-Mass., said he anticipates an exemption for small and midsized public companies from Sarbanes-Oxley Section 404(b) requirements for independent audits of their internal controls to remain in the final version of the financial regulatory reform bill.

The health care reform bill included a provision for extra information reporting that could mean many businesses will need to file hundreds more 1099 types of forms to help the government close the tax gap.

Extending the 2001 and 2003 federal income tax cuts would sharply increase the national debt, even if the extensions were limited to individuals earning below $200,000, according to a new report by the Pew Economic Policy Group.

The Supreme Court declined to hear Textron’s appeal in a key tax case, letting stand a lower court decision that allows the Internal Revenue Service to demand legal and tax work papers from companies.

The bipartisan leaders of the Senate Finance Committee have introduced legislation to create job opportunities for veterans returning home from war by providing tax credits for businesses that hire them.

The Internal Revenue Service has left the 2011 inflation-adjusted amounts for health savings accounts unchanged from 2010, citing the Consumer Price Index.

The Internal Revenue Service needs to screen and monitor electronic filing providers more carefully, according to a new government report.

In the world of accounting marketing, as in any marketing, building your network of referral sources and centers of influence is critical. Many young CPAs are tasked with building their professional network early in their careers, but are not always given the necessary tools and training on how to do it.

As the annual price tag for fraud at American business soars to nearly $1 trillion, the demand for CPAs that provide forensic accounting services has increased exponentially - a spike that appears in no danger of waning over the next several years.

Codification of the economic substance doctrine by the Health Care and Education Reconciliation Act of 2010 has produced a palpable level of anxiety among many tax practitioners over how the new law will be applied to a variety of tax strategies.

CPA firms, like many other businesses throughout the country, are feeling the sting of the recession. The mood of the client-firm relationship is somber at best and panicked at worst. In light of these realities, it is of crucial importance for accounting firms to frame the value of their "softer" assets. By softer assets, I mean a number of intangible but highly valuable characteristics embodied by most CPAs and their firms.

In this challenging environment for the accounting profession, large regional firms, and small and midsized firms, have to come up with innovative strategies to grow their top line.

TREASURY REQUIRES MORE ELECTRONIC TRANSACTIONS

Accountants are squarely on the front line of the problems with the 2010 estate tax hiatus, according to practitioners and estate-planning attorneys.

Louisiana CPA firm Postlethwaite & Netterville has been growing - especially in the past year-and-a-half, as the Baton Rouge-based firm expanded its operations, acquiring Lafayette-based Veazey & Co. in January 2009, and the audit and tax practices of New Orleans-based Legier & Materne in December 2008.

Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus, D-Mont., plans to convene a hearing to consider White House proposals for reducing waste and overpayments in the unemployment insurance program.

ParenteBeard has introduced an Emerging Growth Business Services Practice to service startup and early-stage companies.

The Treasury Department released new guidelines for applying for tax credits to fund promising new therapies, with small medical research firms eligible to receive up to $5 million each out of a $1 billion pie.

Tax Credit Company president Brandon Edwards calls the HIRE Act a “game changer” for mid-market and smaller companies that now can take advantage of the hiring incentive program.