Practice and client management

The Internal Revenue Service’s Return Preparer Office said it is sending letters to 3,000 tax preparers who failed to use a valid Preparer Tax Identification Number.

Last week, one of the “girlie” cable channels had a weeklong Christmas-in-July event, where they showed Christmas movies the whole week. (In case you’re wondering, it’s my wife, not me, who watches this particular channel). But the thought occurred that if it’s time to start thinking about Christmas, then it’s also time to begin considering end-of-year tips and planning strategies to offer clients as we approach the beginning of fall.

Senators Tom Harkin, D-Iowa, and Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, led a bipartisan group of five senators in introducing legislation to increase the alternative tax liability limitation for small property and casualty insurance companies.

The Internal Revenue Service has issued a revenue procedure that clarifies the rules for when a company uses the deferral method of accounting for advance payments that are received by the taxpayer for the sale of gift cards that are redeemable by an unrelated entity.

There are currently 17 states offering sales tax holidays where state sales tax charges are temporarily dropped on back-to-school items such as clothing, footwear, classroom supplies, computers and certain other products, according to CCH.

The deadline is coming up this week for lawmakers in Congress to submit their preferences for the “must have” tax breaks that need to be kept in the Tax Code under Senate Finance Committee leaders’ “blank slate” approach to tax reform.

Thomson Reuters has introduced Checkpoint Pocket Assistant, a mobile app that helps tax and accounting professionals perform tasks from an Apple iPhone.

Biz2Credit, an online credit provider for small businesses, has launched a partnership program for CPAs and other accountants and tax preparers who refer their small business clients for loans.

Thomson Reuters has integrated the upcoming back-to-school tax holidays into its ONESOURCE Indirect Tax Software.

The chairmen of the House Ways and Means Committee and the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee have written to the head of the Internal Revenue Service about the status of several of the officials who resigned or were placed on administrative leave in the wake of the Tea Party targeting scandal.

Every company in every industry faces some degree of risk. But some risks are greater than others, particularly sensitivity risk (related to external factors like commodity prices and competition), which accounts for about half of all risk incurred by any company.

The Internal Revenue Service spent over $4.8 million in fiscal year 2011 and $4.7 million in fiscal year 2012 for executive travel, according to a new government report.

Coaching and consulting firm PartnersCoach has introduced a Partner-Pipeline program that provides a developmental approach to building future leaders within accounting firms.

A pair of lawmakers plan to introduce bipartisan legislation in the House that would provide permanent tax incentives to family farmers, ranchers and other land owners who choose not to develop their land and instead preserve their property for conservation.

A pair of congressional subcommittee chairmen are asking the head of the Internal Revenue Service about a recent report that the agency accidentally posted thousands of Social Security numbers on the Internet.

Your client has a successful closely held business. Perhaps your client has already indicated that, at some indeterminate point in the future, the business will be sold. Even if your client has not given such an indication, you are well advised to at least broach the topic as a matter of long-term contingency planning.

The former manager of an H&R Block outlet has been sentenced to 12 months and one day in federal prison for using the identities of his former tax preparation clients to file false returns with the Internal Revenue Service seeking fraudulent income tax refunds.

A continued focus on customer experience, cloud and mobile initiatives and payments -- along with staying the branding and product course laid out over the past two years -- was the primary tone of this year’s Sage Summit user and partner event.

Conservative economist Dr. Arthur Laffer has co-written a study that identified a positive economic impact in efforts to require online retailers to collect sales taxes from customers on Internet purchases.

I'd like to take this opportunity to diverge from the news of the week to expound upon a couple of topics, namely what has become somewhat of a religious debate over the cloud as well as some thoughts on upcoming vendor events.