Practice management

A Senate subcommittee plans to release another blockbuster report on the use of foreign tax havens after the first reports caused repercussions both here and abroad.

The Internal Revenue Service said it plans to send a second set of information packages to an estimated 5.2 million retirees and disabled veterans who have not yet filed their tax returns in order to give them their economic stimulus payments.

The New York State Department of Taxation and Finance has reportedly sent letters to 182,000 individual taxpayers asking them to justify the tax refunds they have requested.

Consideration of any tax reform for small business must take into account the difficulties small-business owners face when deciding how to structure their business and comply with the Tax Code’s complex requirements, said Dewey Martin, a Hampden, Maine-based CPA.Martin, who testified at the recent hearings before the Senate Finance Committee on business entities and small-business tax reform, is a small-business owner himself, as well as an advisor to 200-plus small-business owners and chair of the Accounting Department at Husson College in Bangor, Maine.

GAO SAYS IRS NEEDS TO IMPROVE INTERNAL CONTROLS

Going it alone is tough in the accounting profession. Better connections, improved ability to handle inter-regional and international business, better employee recruiting, and greater operating efficiencies are just a few of the elements needed to continue a healthy upward curve. Gaining these advantages, however, isn’t always easy. That is why many firms make the choice to join either an accounting network or an accounting association.No matter where a business is located or what niches and industries it serves, becoming part of a network or reaching out for an association affiliation can provide the tools to build a stronger business.

The event may be have been billed as The Forum for Women in Accounting, but the issues and topics discussed at the three-day confab here were decidedly not just for one gender.That was the overriding sentiment during the course of the conference, and one that resonated with the majority of the 250 attendees, which even included a handful of men.

The Internal Revenue Service's Criminal Investigation Division increased its enforcement activities last fiscal year after they fell behind in fiscal 2006, according to a new report.

Swiss investment bank UBS plans to stop offering offshore banking to U.S. residents after the bank was questioned about its clients' tax avoidance practices at a Senate hearing.

Back-to-school shopping will be tax-free for a few days next month in 13 states and the District of Columbia, according to a report by CCH.

The proposed regulations on preparer penalties, released on June 17, are the latest iteration of rules that tax practitioners should consider carefully when recommending and executing tax strategies. Not heeding them can result in stiff penalties or, worse, the loss of the right to continue to practice tax law and serious damage to a firm’s reputation in the client community.The simple reality is that those responsible for recommending prospective tax strategies are almost always drawn back into the matter by the signing return preparer once the transaction is completed. They are asked about tax benefit matters what was intended and whether things turn out as expected. That after-the-fact advice is enough to subject the practitioner to the label “return preparer” for purposes of the preparer penalties.

The Texas Society of CPAs has elected a new chairman, Steven R. Goodman, along with a new board and officers.

VSP Vision Care has hired former U.S. Solicitor General Ken Starr to represent the eye care insurance provider in an appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court on its tax-exempt status.

The Internal Revenue Service's process for collecting unpaid taxes is overly complicated and delayed, according to a new report by the Government Accountability Office.

Florida accounting firms Cross, Fernandez & Riley and Beckert, Price & Rowse plan to merge August 1, allowing CFR to expand operations in a populous part of the state.

Two Southern California accounting firms have joined forces, with Newport Beach-based Squar, Milner, Peterson, Miranda & Williamson merging with Los Angeles-based Thomashow, Brown & Paialii.

John K. Harris founded JK Harris & Co. in 1997 and it quickly grew into one of the country's largest tax representation firms, helping people who are in trouble with the Internal Revenue Service.

As a Senate subcommittee and the Internal Revenue Service probe the use of Swiss bank accounts as tax havens by UBS, Sen. Carl Levin, D-Mich., has called for revoking the U.S. banking license of UBS.

The Bonadio Group has merged with Dorfman-Robbie and its affiliated companies, the DR Group, to create an accounting firm with annual revenues of nearly $45 million.

The taxes paid by U.S. consumers are rising higher overall at gas pumps, retail stores and cigarette counters, according to a new survey.