Practice and client management

Taxpayers will reap little benefit next year from the indexing of many features of the Tax Code, according to CCH, which released estimated income ranges for each 2010 tax bracket.

IRS EASES ON MODIFYING COMMERCIAL MORTGAGE LOANS

New standard ends FIN 48 deferral for private companies

LINDA STIFF RETIRES FROM IRS

IMGCAP(1)]Today, more than three years since it was issued, FIN48 remains the bane of many tax departments’ existence.

The time is nigh, saith the IRS, for millions of taxpayers who have filed for extensions to send in their 2008 returns by Oct. 15.

The Internal Revenue Service has issued new rules for travel, lodging, meals and other expenses, including an optional method for computing the deductible costs.

The House Committee on Small Business held a hearing on how some expiring tax incentives, such as the research and development credit and clean energy incentives, would affect small businesses.

IMGCAP(1)]Generally regarded as recession-proof, the accounting industry has been less affected than others by the recent economic turmoil hitting the U.S. economy.

The Internal Revenue Service has provided guidance for retirement plan administrators, plan participants and retirees on some recent changes from legislation affecting required minimum distributions.

The Justice Department has asked a federal court in Lincoln, Neb., to bar Donald Ondrak, a Lexington, Neb., CPA, from preparing tax returns.

IMGCAP(1)]Client retention is an essential ingredient of a solid marketing plan.

An outside audit has revealed that the Securities and Exchange Commission's record-keeping system of contracts with outside vendors is riddled with "significant risk areas" within the regulator's acquisitions office.

The Pentagon's Defense Contract Audit Agency - thefederal watchdog responsible for providing critical accounting and auditingoversight of military contractors - is riddled with audit quality problems thatinclude inadequate audit planning and supervision, as well as serious breachesof auditor independence, congressional investigators charged.

A New Jersey man has pleaded guilty to failing to report $6.1 million that he had hidden in secret Swiss bank accounts.

The Internal Revenue Service has agreed to extend until the end of the year a grace period for collecting penalties from small businesses accused of engaging in certain types of tax shelters.

Among the revenue proposals detailed in the administration’s fiscal 2010 budget are some provisions that might negatively affect small businesses and tax preparers. The American Institute of CPAs has weighed in on a number of these, including the codification of the economic substance doctrine, information reporting on payments to corporations, increasing the level of the information penalties, and expanding the requirement for electronic filing by return preparers.

The Internal Revenue Service has severed ties with ACORN, the controversial community-organizing group that was recently the subject of a series of hidden camera videos.

A California tax preparer who falsely claimed to be a CPA and former IRS employee could receive up to six years in prison after he pleaded guilty this week to aiding and assisting others in preparing false tax returns.

New Jersey ranks at the bottom of the list in a new study of the comparative business friendliness of tax systems in the 50 states, while South Dakota is counted as most business friendly.