Practice management

The National Society of Accountants is recommending that tax preparers not rush to sign up for the Internal Revenue Service’s upcoming tax preparation compliance exams.

The Internal Revenue Service plans to host the first of a series of public meetings next Thursday on its plans to create a “real-time tax system” that would provide immediate feedback on whether the information in a tax return matched the IRS’s records.

Accounting Today's Growth & Profitability Summit speaker Jeffrey Ma ended his keynote address in Las Vegas by discussing one very big blackjack hand.

Faced with the confluence of a still uncertain economy, ongoing fee and margin pressures, torrid competition for clients, and new business and the continual challenge to sustain growth, running some of the nation's top accounting firms has undoubtedly caused a number of sleepless nights for more than one managing partner.

December represents one last chance to consider certain year-end tax strategies before the door closes on the amount of income, deductions and credits set for the year. Many traditional eleventh-hour techniques are applicable to this year-end 2011, with certain twists that recognize changes on the horizon for 2013. This column examines a handful of considerations especially useful to the individual taxpayer in these final weeks of 2011.

Accounting firms typically have multiple partners, some of whom may want to retire or move on in the near future, and others who want to stay longer.

Despite staggering statistics as to the massive scope of fraud in sheer dollar volume and the surprising vulnerability many companies are to white-collar crime, a shocking number of businesses are ill-prepared to prevent it, or are unsure of how to implement an effective prevention program.

STATE TAX REVENUES CLIMB, LOCAL TAX MONEY SLIDES

Treating a worker as an independent contractor rather than an employee has its advantages, say tax experts.

December represents one last chance to consider certain year-end tax strategies before the door closes on the amount of income, deductions and credits set for the year. Many traditional eleventh-hour techniques are applicable to this year-end 2011, with certain twists that recognize changes on the horizon for 2013. This column examines a handful of considerations especially useful to the individual taxpayer in these final weeks of 2011.

ARIZONA

The on-again, off-again status of IFRS is a fact of life for those of us in the accounting profession. But it's not an excuse for inaction.

STATE TAX REVENUES CLIMB, LOCAL TAX MONEY SLIDES

Treating a worker as an independent contractor rather than an employee has its advantages, say tax experts.

Senate Republicans are offering their own legislation to extend the payroll tax cut while avoiding an extra surtax on millionaires.

A New Jersey tax preparer was sentenced Wednesday to six months in prison for preparing false tax returns for numerous clients that resulted in an estimated tax loss to the federal government of between $30,000 and $80,000.

The Internal Revenue Service said Wednesday that it has $153.3 million in undelivered tax refund checks waiting to be sent to 99,123 taxpayers across the country.

Accountants need to be wary of promoting their services as advisors who can help their clients achieve success at the same time the firms are auditing their books.

The Internal Revenue Service said Tuesday that interest rates for tax overpayments and underpayments would remain the same in the first quarter of the year.