Practice and client management

The Internal Revenue Service is requesting applicants for both its Information Reporting Program Advisory Committee and its Electronic Tax Administration Advisory Committee.

The May cover story for Practical Accountant focuses on how a number of firms are using formalized testing to determinate if a potential hire is right for a job. It also explores how testing is extending to other aspects of firms’ operations.

IFACnet, a search engine developed by the International Federation of Accountants and its members, has expanded its resources to address the needs of small and midsized accounting practices.

By now, tax practitioners know that e-filing is here to stay. Every year, changing mandates increase the number of businesses required to file their federal tax returns electronically, and the Internal Revenue Service offers more and better ways for tax pros to interact electronically with the service.Even if the e-file mandate hasn't affected your clientele, do yourself and your clients a big favor: Prepare for electronic filing early and take advantage of all of the electronic services now available from the Internal Revenue Service.

Only time will tell whether the bane of the 2006 tax filing year for the Internal Revenue Service is the scam-prone telephone tax refund, or the confusion that seems destined to arrive soon surrounding a number of extender provisions that were not included on the agency's original forms.The agency urged taxpayers to check and see if they qualify for the telephone excise tax refund after more than 10 million early filers did not request the one-time refund. In the first release of the year's weekly filing season statistics, about 30 percent of all taxpayers had not requested the telephone tax refund. Nearly half of those returns - more than 4.8 million - were completed by a tax preparer. "We are surprised how many tax preparers are overlooking the telephone tax refund," said IRS Commissioner Mark Everson, in a statement.

The Internal Revenue Service and the Treasury announced that they will work on creating detailed LIFO guidance for automobile wholesalers, manufacturers and dealers.The accounting issue confronting the automobile industry - which involves the proper treatment of the dollar-value, last-in, first out inventory method for pooling purposes of "crossover vehicles," which have characteristics of both trucks and cars - was selected for the Industry Issue Resolution Program.

The Internal Revenue Service and Treasury Department announced the release of proposed regulations that would disallow foreign tax credits for foreign taxes purportedly paid in connection with certain artificially engineered, highly structured transactions.

When I first enrolled in college, I opted for a marketing course as an elective. At first, there was some trepidation on my part, because to me, marketing was a term my grandmother used when she intended to go grocery shopping. During my first day in class, I soon learned that the process of marketing had nothing to do with a visit to Grand Union or Safeway.

The Sarbanes-Oxley Act brought the tax manager into the financial statement reporting process as never before. As SOX Section 404 internal control certifications were made with respect to each input into the financial statements, it became clear that one of the weakest areas for SOX 404 compliance was accounting for income taxes.Under FASB Statement No. 109, Accounting for Income Taxes, the process of providing for deferred income taxes had become so subjective and subject to differing interpretations that certification of the results was difficult, and comparability across financial statements appeared to be lacking.

Despite continued controversy over whether the use of private debt collectors is a direction the Internal Revenue Service should be moving in, a new federal report gave high marks to the first phase of the agency’s pilot program.

Reversing a trend of declining optimism over the past three years, CPAs serving as chief executive officers, chief financial officers and in other executive financial positions have a favorable view of the economy, according to the first quarter 2007 Business and Industry Economic Outlook Survey.

The Government Accountability Office says that the Taxpayer Advocate Service needs to be collecting better data on the type of cases it handles, as well as how those cases are actually being handled.The office was originally asked to examine why the advocate service has experienced an increased caseload since 2004, how well the service has conducted its activities in terms of measures such as customer satisfaction and quality, and finally, how well the service measures and reports its advocacy efforts.

The Internal Revenue Service is alerting taxpayers about common mistakes made by individuals while preparing their federal income tax returns.

The Internal Revenue Service announced the appointment of David R. Williams as director of the agency’s Electronic Tax Administration and Refundable Credits division.

Link2Gov Corp. announced that its Pay1040.com service, now in its fifth year of contracted electronic payment processing for the Internal Revenue Service, is experiencing a 63 percent year-over-year increase in the dollars being processed for federal tax payments.

I was reading an interesting profile this week of Steve Stoute, a respected marketer in the ad world who preaches a message that brands needs to change with the times.Stoute’s agency, Translation Consultation & Brand Imaging, specializes in repositioning brands, and tells its clients that companies need to embrace cultural changes in order to speak with a new generation of clients.

A number of firms, especially the larger regionals, are going corporate. This approach to firm governance is seen as having an overall advantage over the strict partnership model as partners at different stages in their careers and with different specialties and concerns often find it hard to reach consensus or take decisive action quickly.

I seldom veer off the subject of accounting in this space unless circumstances or events encourage me to do otherwise.

The Internal Revenue Service is looking for applicants for its Taxpayer Advocacy Panel, which provides a forum for citizens from each state to make suggestions regarding IRS decisions.

Marcum & Kliegman LLP has launched a new Women’s Leadership Development Program with neighboring law firm Farrell Fritz PC.The program, which is open to employees of both firms but not open to the public –yet -- was developed to provide a supportive venue for female professionals to explore issues that affect them in the workplace and develop skills to enrich their careers, said Marcum manager of training and development, Nancy Chen.