Practice and client management

At last count, at least 11 parties have submitted amicus (friend of the court) briefs to the U.S. Supreme Court as it considers whether to hear an appeal from the First Circuit decision in Textron regarding a corporation’s tax accrual workpapers.

Senate Finance Committee leaders publicly released a draft Thursday of the widely anticipated jobs bill they plan to introduce, including payroll tax provisions and the extension of a number of tax breaks that expired last year.

New York City has launched a free Web-based tax preparation and electronic filing service that is available to all residents who earn less than $58,000.

The Senate has unanimously approved a bill that would prevent small businesses from incurring large tax penalties aimed at large corporations and wealthy individuals who invest in tax shelters.

Senate Democrats have begun circulating a draft version of the jobs bill they plan to introduce, with a series of tax breaks and tax extenders designed to lure Republican support.

A coalition of charities, aid groups, unions, and movie actors and directors has launched a campaign calling for a global 0.05 percent tax on banks’ speculative financial transactions, with the proceeds going to combat poverty and climate change.

A series of surveys conducted in the past decade suggests that CFOs may be staying in their jobs longer.

There’s a certain amount of suspense these days in our nation’s capital about what’s going to happen not only with health care reform, but also financial regulations.

The Iowa Attorney General has filed criminal charges against two filmmakers and the former head of the Iowa Film Office accusing them of mishandling over $1.85 million in tax credits for a movie production.

BizActions, a provider of e-mail newsletters for CPAs, has introduced BizSurvey, a tool that allows users to create and deploy surveys and aggregate the results.

A former UBS client who owned and operated several businesses that manufactured and sold watches has pleaded guilty to tax charges related to concealing over $10 million in secret Swiss bank accounts.

Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., and Jim Webb, D-Va., have introduced legislation that would impose a tax on large bonuses paid by Wall Street banks and other firms that received more than $5 billion from the Troubled Asset Relief Program in 2009.

A CPA has been suspended for 12 months from practicing before the Internal Revenue Service for providing false or misleading information when preparing his clients’ tax returns.

Despite its massive tax increases, the President’s 2011 Budget Plan contains a number of revenue provisions calculated to encourage business expansion and move the economy upward.

Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner and Chilean Finance Minister Andrés Velasco signed a new income tax treaty between the United States and Chile to provide certainty and stability of tax treatment for U.S. and Chilean cross-border investors.

The United States and Hungary have signed a new income tax treaty that brings an existing agreement signed by the two countries in 1979 into closer conformity with current U.S. international tax policy.

IMGCAP(1)]Accountants are often considered the trusted advisor to business owners. Yet, when it comes to their own practices, we often find they have not paid enough attention to critical issues at the office.

The U.S. Tax Court has ruled in favor of a Massachusetts taxpayer whose deduction for her sex change operation was rejected by the Internal Revenue Service.

IMGCAP(1)]Like your finances, your firm’s marketing efforts should be reviewed on a regular basis to ensure that your short- and long-term plans are in order.

As expected, President Obama proposed a $3.8 trillionbudget for Fiscal 2011, including a projected record deficit of $1.6 trillion.