Practice management

President Obama has signed legislation that provides employers with tax incentives to hire unemployed workers.

The House Ways and Means Committee has approved legislation to provide tax relief to small businesses and extend financing measures for creating jobs.

One week after California CPA Phil Liberatore announced he was running for a congressional seat in that state's 42nd district, former New York lawmaker and Arthur Andersen partner Joseph DioGuardi announced he is challenging Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, D-N.Y., for her Senate seat.

The Commonwealth of Pennsylvania will offer amnesty to those who owe back state taxes, for only the second time in its history.

The Senate has approved legislation that provides companies with a payroll tax exemption for hiring new employees.

The Internal Revenue Service has been making good on its promises to step up its audits of wealthy taxpayers, and sites like Facebook could be a big help.

The Internal Revenue Service has issued its annual list of common tax scams to avoid, with tax preparer fraud and phishing schemes topping the list.

Calls to the Internal Revenue Service’s toll-free phone lines for tax help may exceed the agency’s projections this tax season.

House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Sander Levin, D-Mich., has unveiled a draft of a new bill that would provide tax incentives to small businesses to spur job creation.

IMGCAP(1)]Many businesses have been reluctant to start using social media, and for good reason.

Sen. Christopher Dodd, D-Conn., has released a draft version of the financial regulatory reform legislation that he has been working to write since the House passed its own legislation last December.

Rep. Rush Holt, D-N.J., has introduced legislation to encourage small business investment and job creation by expanding the research and development tax credit.

At a practice management conference earlier this year, one presenter treated attendees to a 17-year-old flashback - a nostalgic chart showing Accounting Today's 1993 ranking of the top 60 tax and accounting firms. (Yes, back then we only ranked 60 firms.)

At first glance, the notion proposed by our cover that there might be signs of growth in the accounting profession and its Top 100 Firms might seem overly (even ridiculously) optimistic.

Each year, we present a selection of "Firms to Watch" that aren't quite large enough for the Top 100, but that have shown such strong growth that they can be considered candidates for future editions of the list. Two factors have caused us to alter the format and contents of our watch list this year.

After weathering one of the roughest economies on record, the 2010 Top 100 Firms are making a gradual transition from implementing austerity measures such as fee reductions, hiring freezes and, in some dire cases, staff cuts, to repositioning themselves to capitalize on a slower-than-expected, but gradual, recovery.

Amper, Politziner & Mattia: Continued integration of 2008 merger with Goldenberg Rosenthal. Created a Clean Tech Group.

It's been another lagging year for growth in specialty services at the Top 100 Firms, which should come as no surprise given the gloomy economic climate. Nevertheless, a number of this year's class of T100 Firms still managed to post gains in select niche areas.

The poor economic conditions for most of 2009 were reflected in the first-ever decline in the revenue of the Top 100 Firms, primarily as a result of the size of the losses experienced by the Big Four. Local and regional firms as a group, however, for the most part showed modest growth. With the exception of the Mountain region, all of the regions posted modest gains for the year.

The first piece of tax legislation likely to emerge from Congress in 2010 is expected to be focused on job creation. The House passed a bill at the end of 2009, and the Senate is crafting a response as we go to press. It appears unlikely at this point that the Senate will adopt the House bill.