Practice management

Jim Metzler, former AICPA vice president of small firm interests, and founder of Metzler Advisory Group, talks about how the CPA profession is changing, in an interview with Accounting Today managing editor Tamika Cody.

I started my third job one year and seven months after I graduated college. I was hired as a “junior” but felt I was more experienced since I was doing “higher level” work at my previous job.

The Internal Revenue Service has arranged to pay Microsoft extra money to continue to support its old Windows XP computers beyond the cutoff date that Microsoft has imposed for supporting the old operating system.

The Internal Revenue Service is anticipating the chances of a tax return being audited to be the lowest in years.

The accounting and advisory firm Baker Tilly Virchow Krause has introduced an interactive online mapping tool that helps users determine if a business or development project may qualify under various criteria for the New Markets Tax Credit or Low-Income Housing Tax Credit program.

Almost three quarters (72 percent) of small-business owners have changed their CPA or accounting firm at least in part because the firm only gave them “reactive service,” instead of proactive advice, according to a new survey.

The RNC has filed a lawsuit against the IRS for withholding records sought by a 2013 Freedom of Information Act request.

Despite the late start to tax season, the Internal Revenue Service generally kept pace with last year, according to a government report.

For taxpayers who owe taxes with their tax returns, the IRS has provided ten tips about how to pay.

Highlights of some of our favorite tax-related blogs from the past week.

A pair of senators have called on the Social Security Administration to end the policy of seizing taxpayers’ refunds to hold them accountable for decades-old errors made by the agency that led to the overpayment of benefits, and the agency has agreed to do so.

Accountants who meet with business clients to deliver tax returns during busy season are understandably pressed for time and attention. These brief meetings, however, are an important part of developing and cementing your role as a trusted advisor, and they can pave the way for cross-selling additional services to existing clients.

The House Ways and Means Committee held a hearing last week to discuss the perennial issue of the tax extenders, the temporary tax provisions that expire year after year and are usually renewed.

President Barack Obama and his wife, Michelle, reported adjusted gross income of $481,098 for 2013, down 21 percent from last year, according to tax returns released yesterday by the White House.

U.S. states are trying to capture corporate income taxes lost to offshore havens, wary of companies exploiting rules that let them channel cash abroad and weary of congressional inaction.

Some of our favorite recent tax fraud cases, including one preparer who is alleged to have sent in a false return for her dead mother.

Internal Revenue Service commissioner John Koskinen addressed a special thank you to the tax community in an email to tax professionals Friday, noting that their work is “critical to running the tax system and helping the nation.”

Write-ups are extinct. When I started in 1963, most small CPA firms primarily did write-ups. After I started my practice in 1969, it became an embarrassment to say I did write-ups. It connoted something beneath my “professional” status. I think a problem today is that write-ups no longer exist for younger staff.

The Internal Revenue Service has released the 2014 version of “The Truth about Frivolous Tax Arguments,” a document that describes and responds to some of the common frivolous tax arguments made by those who oppose the federal tax laws.

The U.S. Office of Special Counsel has recently investigated several cases in which Internal Revenue Service employees allegedly engaged in partisan political activity in the workplace, advocating in support of President Obama.