Internal Revenue Service agents are spending more time conducting face-to-face corporate audits that produce no revenue, according to a report released by the tax division of Syracuse University’s Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse.

The climate is changing for nonprofit organizations, with both the Internal Revenue Service and Congress zeroing in on issues such as transparency, board oversight and compensation matters.While Sarbanes-Oxley requirements apply to only the public company sector, the scandals emanating from publicly traded companies over the past several years have affected the nonprofit arena as well, according to Geralyn R. Hurd, an executive in the tax services group at Crowe Chizek's Chicago office.

Like their GOP predecessors, the Democrats in charge of Congressional tax committees continue to wring their hands over the fiscal train wreck looming due to the escalating alternative minimum tax.But agreement on a way to stop that runaway AMT locomotive - a step that many tax accountants say is needed to head off a tax revolt by millions of middle-income American families - seems just as elusive as ever.

Derivatives may be complex instruments, but they nevertheless have to be calculated, accounted for and reported on to investors and other users of financial information.The Financial Accounting Standards Board tried to settle the issue when it issued Statement 133, Accounting for Derivative Instruments and Hedging Activities in 1998, but people who read financial statements still had questions. For example, how do derivatives activities impact a company's operations? And how does a given derivative relate to a given risk?'

New Jersey is working to join a roster of U.S. states that are offering tax breaks to local military personnel, as a state legislator has authored a bill that would exempt income earned by military personnel stationed outside the state for at least six months from the state's gross income tax."I think there's no question that our men and women who are serving in the military are sacrificing a tremendous amount already," said New Jersey Assemblyman Michael Panter, author of the bill. "To tax them from a state perspective, when they're not in New Jersey taking advantage of the state services and infrastructure, really it's a windfall to the state, and I think it's incredibly unfair."

A combination of both strong economic growth and low unemployment helped keep state tax rates flat for 2006. Nevertheless, some states are continuing to mine tax-related revenue streams."Currently, there are several states that are looking to improve their tax structure," explained Curtis Dubay, an economist at the Tax Foundation.

Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson said that U.S. rulemakers should consider adopting "principles-based" regulations and accounting standards, in a speech at the Capital Markets Competitiveness Conference.Paulson said that in particular, there should be a focus on three issues in the U.S. - the country's regulatory structure, its accounting industry, and its legal and corporate governance environment.

One of my former employers has been the occasional subject of this column -- particularly when the topic centered on how not to run a business.

I just came back from a cruise that included a stop at George Town, Grand Cayman. Many people on the ship joked that this was an intended, featured port of call as they wanted to check up on their shekels in the island’s banks. Let me sort this out for you.

The Public Company Accounting Oversight Board announced that deputy chief auditor Laura J. Phillips will leave the board later this year.

Along with making the case to keep executive compensation the way it is, the Financial Executives International recently said that investors are not well served by the complexity of financial reporting and released a four-point plan to address the problem.

Nearly half of all non-retired adult Americans still expect to retire with a pension, according to a new poll conducted for the American Institute of CPAs.

The Treasury Department and the Internal Revenue Service issued final regulations on the treatment of nonqualified deferred compensation plans and arrangements under Section 409(a) of the tax code.

The Financial Accounting Standards Board has named Lawrence W. Smith, currently chairman of the standard-setter’s Emerging Issues Task Force, as a member of the board.

Husband and wife grape-growers in Geyserville, Calif., got some mixed news last week, after the U.S. Tax Court took a closer look at how they could depreciate improvements made to their vineyard.The court found that although Leo and Evelyn Trendadue properly classified wine grape trellises on their land as farm machinery or equipment, because the irrigation systems and well the couple built on their property have a longer class life (20 years, as opposed to 10 years) those enhancements should be classified -- and depreciated for -- as permanent land improvements.

The National Association of Black Accountants Inc. and the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants recently announced the launch of Money $ense.The program contains five curriculum modules designed to reverse the poor financial forecasts being made about individuals and families within the African-American community. The five modules focus on key financial areas such as credit and debt management, budgeting, financial planning, investing and saving.

There is a greater push for transparency, both in terms of financial reporting and in regard to regulatory actions, but I wonder how successful this push will ultimately be. It is the regulatory bodies that will have to be the driving force, along with institutional investors. A recent action indicated to me that one particular regulatory body seems to have little concern for transparency. It was reported at www.indystar.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070405/BUSINESS/704050480 that Conseco Life Insurance Co. has been fined $750,000 by Iowa regulators. The article reports that state kept secret exactly what triggered the penalty. This got me curious, as the fine was described as ”one of the Iowa Insurance Division's largest such penalties,” so I tracked down the order.

If I had a dollar for every time I heard the expression that you need to make sure your money outlives you, I would probably be retired 15 times over by now. It seems that this is the big signpost in front of all clients’ eyes.

Small and midsized businesses added 124,000 jobs in March, according to the ADP National Employment Report from payroll and benefits outsourcer ADP Inc.

If you think you understand IAS 39, "Financial Instruments: Recognition. and Measurement," then you haven’t read it, according to Sir David Tweedie, chairman of the International Accounting Standards Board.