Practice management

The latest American Institute of CPAs' Statement on Standards for Tax Services has some practitioners upset that it could hurt smaller firms that are primarily engaged in tax preparation.SSTS 9, available on the AICPA Tax Center Web site, was released a year ago in proposed form and is slated to go into effect on June 30, 2007. It "sets forth the applicable standards for members concerning the obligation to have a system of quality control for their tax practice (public practice) or function (nonpublic practice)."

Liberty Tax Service announced the acquisition of eSmartTax, the income tax preparation business of San Jose, Calif.-based C&S Technologies. Financial terms of the deal, which does not include C&S's payroll-tax-related filing services, were not disclosed.The eSmartTax acquisition will allow Liberty customers to prepare and file individual tax returns on the Internet through the company's Web site, or through the Internal Revenue Service's Free File Alliance site.

Partnership taxpayers can now use the modernized e-File platform when filing Form 1065, "U.S. Return of Partnership Income," and Form 1065-B, "U.S. Return of Income for Electing Large Partnerships."The modernized platform makes use of Extensible Markup Language, and allows users the additional benefits of transactional processing instead of batch processing, allowance for binary file attachments, elimination of the duplicate filing of international returns, and a federal/state partnership program.

KPMG LLP has announced the establishment of the Tax Governance Institute, an open forum for board members, management, stakeholders and government representatives to debate various aspects of tax oversight and management.Through video and audio Webcasts, roundtables, other events and its Web site, the institute's goal is to regularly bring together interested parties to discuss tax matters of common concern relating to the day-to-day and long-term management of corporate tax risk. The institute will soon announce regularly scheduled events. Other online features will include a library of thought leadership and relevant business news, and interactive polling to help gauge the marketplace's awareness of emerging topics.

Donor-advised funds have grown steadily over the past several years, in large part as a result of the benefits these funds bestow upon their donors, and the increased marketing of these funds by sponsoring organizations as a way of capturing donations from an expanding upper class. Some of their recent popularity, however, has been for the wrong reasons - a development that has not gone unnoticed by Congress.The Pension Protection Act of 2006 has tried to reign in some perceived abuses. As with most enforcement measures, however, the pendulum can now swing too far the other way and trap some well-meaning donors by surprise. The PPA has several dates that practitioners should watch in advising clients on donor-advised funds: Aug. 17, 2006; Feb. 13, 2007; and Aug. 17, 2007, as well as certain transition dates.

The House Ways & Means Committee will begin marking up a small business tax package today, according to committee chairman Charles Rangel, D-N.Y.

Companies don’t believe broad-based tax reform is coming anytime soon, though they do think that the change of control in Congress will have a significant impact on tax policy, according to a survey conducted by a Washington law firm.

Internal Revenue Service officials announced an initiative aimed at providing relief for rank-and-file employees affected by their companies’ issuance of backdated stock options.The program is designed for employees who may be unaware that they held backdated options -- not for corporate executives or other insiders who exercised backdated options.

A provision in the president's budget proposals could shelter 529 college-savings plans from being counted in determining federal student financial aid.

The woman with the long blonde hair had a radiance as she floated over the ice, a radiance that middle-age has not dimmed.

Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, the ranking member of the Senate Finance Committee, has taken National Taxpayer Advocate Nina E. Olson to task over her recent annual report to Congress.

Grant Thornton LLP announced it will take a new approach in serving private equity firms and their portfolio companies.

President Bush’s 2008 budget has tabbed $11.4 billion for the Internal Revenue Service, a direct appropriation increase of 6.3 percent from the agency’s 2007 budget.

Everyone in Washington seems to be in agreement that there needs to be a better way of closing the tax gap, but like the other problems facing the Internal Revenue Service, there’s seems to be little Beltway consensus over how to meaningfully tackle the problem.It wasn’t lost on me that the same week that the IRS released its 2008 budget proposal --complete with a number of legislative proposals, a Congressman and the National Taxpayer Advocate continued to spar over the future of one of the agency’s newer attempts to combat the tax gap -- the outsourcing of simple collection cases to private companies as part of a pilot program.

As part of the White House’s proposed $2.9 trillion budget plan for the 2008 fiscal year, President Bush announced an effort aimed at significantly tightening the tax gap.

Popping, crackling Golden Bertolli, fresh dough, tomatoes from Salerno, buffalo mozzarella from Caserta, Fior di Latte, and Parmigiano Reggiano are the ingredients of a slice of pizza I had at a local Brooklyn pizza place last week.Let me tell you a little bit more. Only one individual makes the pie, an older man. He also serves the pies and slices to the customers. His daughter sometimes helps to serve and makes the entrées, pasta, and heroes. The customers clean off the tables (and not just their own).

Besides rising pay for directors, a recent study found that the proportion of S&P 500 companies with classified boards dropped by 8 percent last year, leading to the majority of those companies holding annual elections for all of their directors.

With all the talk about curbing exorbitant executive compensation packages and increased disclosure, I was reminded of an incident nearly 25 years ago, when I was accidentally sent a paycheck intended for Lenny, my supervisor.

The Internal Revenue Service’s Whistleblower Office opened for business this month. The congressionally mandated program is designed to receive information that helps uncover tax cheating and provide appropriate rewards to whistleblowers.

It might not have generated quite the media hoopla of say, Groundhog Day, but yesterday marked the launch of the Earned Income Tax Credit Awareness Day.