In an effort to target growing small businesses, Sage Software has unveiled Sage BusinessVision 50 Accounting 7.2, an upgrade that includes updated purchase order and order entry modules; a series of new customization options; improved inventory management; general ledger upgrades; and fixed asset management integration. Sage BusinessVision 50 Accounting 7.2 Standard Edition, (U.S. and Canadian versions), which includes 18 accounting and business management modules, and supports either one, five or 10 users, starts as $3,595 for the one-user system. For additional information, visit: http://www.sagebusinessvision.com/

The nation's economic policy heads outlined sweeping recommendations to strengthen the nation's credit markets -- calling for stronger licensing standards for mortgage brokers, more duel diligence from credit-rating agencies and stronger trading systems for complex instruments in an effort to avoid another credit meltdown. "Regulation needs to catch up with innovation and help restore investor confidence but not go so far as to create new problems, make our markets less efficient or cut off credit to those who need it," Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson said during a speech at the National Press Club. "We are encouraging financial institutions to continue to strengthen balance sheets by raising capital and revisiting dividend policies; we need those institutions to continue to lend and facilitate economic growth." Paulson, who heads the President's Working Group on Financial Markets, said the recommendations emanate from seven months' work by the group, which is comprised of the heads of the Treasury, the Federal Reserve Board, the Securities and Exchange Commission, the New York Federal Reserve Board and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission. Specifically, the PWG recommended strengthening the credit markets in the following areas: transparency and disclosure, risk awareness, risk management, capital management, regulatory policies, and market infrastructure. Paulson stressed that both state and local regulators need to strengthen oversight of mortgage originators, while credit rating agencies, must "perform robust due diligence" of originators of assets that are securitized or used as collateral for structured credit products. Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke labeled the recommendations an "appropriate and effective response to deficiencies in our financial framework that contributed to the current turmoil in financial markets," in a release accompanying the working group's policy statement. Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman Christopher Cox said the agency would use its new authority to address rating agency issues to restore investor confidence. "This effort is not about finding excuses and scapegoats. Those who committed fraud or wrongdoing have contributed to the current problems; authorities need to and are prosecuting them. But poor judgment and poor market practices led to mistakes by all participants," Paulson said. Paulson's remarks can be read at: http://www.treas.gov/press/releases/hp872.htm

The Internal Revenue Service has issued a notice with procedures for vehicle manufacturers to certify that a fuel cell vehicle meets the requirements for a tax credit. It also provides guidance to taxpayers who purchase certified vehicles regarding what they must do to use the credit. Under the law, the new qualified fuel cell motor vehicle credit is available to purchasers of qualified vehicles. The amount of the new qualified fuel cell motor vehicle credit is based on the weight of the vehicle and on when the vehicle is placed in service. An additional credit may be available for a fuel cell passenger automobile or light truck based on a comparison of the city fuel economy rating of that vehicle with the 2002 model year city fuel economy of a vehicle in its weight class. For fuel cell vehicles that weigh not more than 8,500 pounds, the base credit amount is $8,000 if the vehicle is placed in service on or before Dec. 31, 2009. The base credit amount is reduced to $4,000 if the vehicle is placed in service after that date. The amount of the credit available for heavy vehicles varies from $10,000 to $40,000, depending on the weight of the vehicle. The purchaser may claim a credit for the certified amount for a fuel cell vehicle if it is placed in service by the taxpayer after Dec. 31, 2005, and is purchased on or before Dec. 31, 2014.

In its effort to better police microcap securities, the Securities and Exchange Commission suspended the trading of 26 companies for "corporate hijacking."Hijacking refers to when someone seizes the identity of a defunct publicly traded corporation. The SEC said that the incident involved certain people incorporating each of the 26 companies using the same name as a then-defunct or inactive publicly traded corporation.Under trading rules, each class of an issuer's publicly-traded securities is assigned a ticker symbol by Nasdaq Reorganization and a CUSIP number by the Standard & Poor's CUSIP Bureau. The commission said the same persons appear to have usurped the CUSIP numbers and ticker symbols assigned to the defunct or inactive corporations' publicly traded securities for use by the newly incorporated entities.The regulator said the suspensions are first actions under the SEC's Enforcement Division's recently formed Microcap Fraud Working Group. The trading suspensions will last until March 27.

The American Institute of CPAs sent a letter to the Senate Finance Committee prior to its March 12 hearing on estate tax reform urging lawmakers to make permanent changes to the estate tax prior to the current law expiring in 2010.In a letter, the institute reiterated a prioritized series of reforms -- a list that the AICPA had previously sent to Congress in 2005 and again in 2006.

Sen. Max Baucus, D-Mont., chairman of the Committee on Finance, and Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, ranking member, have written to several religious ministries to urge cooperation with an earlier information request from Grassley. The ministry inquiry that Grassley launched last November is meant to gauge the effectiveness of certain tax-exempt policies. "This ought to clear up any misunderstanding about our interest and the committee's role," Grassley said. "We have an obligation to oversee how the tax laws are working for both tax-exempt organizations and taxpayers. Just like with reviews of other tax-exempt organizations in recent years, I look forward to the cooperation of these ministries in the weeks and months ahead." Grassley wrote to six ministries in November, asking a series of questions on the nonprofit organizations' expenses, treatment of donations and business practices. The questions were based on presentations of material from watchdog groups and whistleblowers and on investigative reports in local media outlets. One of the six ministries, Joyce Meyer Ministries of Fenton, Mo., has cooperated substantially with his request and provided the requested information. Benny Hinn Ministries of Grapevine, Texas, has indicated a willingness to cooperate and provided answers to five of the 28 questions so far. Representatives for Randy and Paula White of Without Walls International Church/Paula White Ministries, Tampa, Fla., have verbally indicated to Finance Committee staff that they would cooperate. The remaining ministries have not cooperated, citing privacy protections or questioning the committee's standing to request the information. Baucus and Grassley wrote to them on March 11 to describe the committee's jurisdiction and role in determining the effectiveness of tax policy developed by the committee, distinct from the Internal Revenue Service's role, which is to enforce existing law. The three ministries are: Kenneth and Gloria Copeland of Kenneth Copeland Ministries, Newark, Texas; Creflo and Taffi Dollar of World Changers Church International/Creflo Dollar Ministries, College Park, Ga.; and Eddie L. Long of New Birth Missionary Baptist Church/Eddie L. Long Ministries, Lithonia, Ga.

The Securities and Exchange Commission and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission have put aside their regulatory turf wars and entered into a memorandum of understanding that fosters cooperation between the two enforcement bodies in market oversight and regulation. The agreement includes an information-sharing platform along with guidance for new product reviews - particularly if the products can trade as both a security or a commodity. The first order of business under the joint relationship is notices requesting public comment on two new products --the first is an option that would be traded on options exchanges, and the other is a future that would trade on a single stock futures exchange. The requests for comment will be published in the Federal Register.

The Internal Revenue Service needs to improve oversight of its process for interpreting tax laws through its published guidance program, according to a new audit publicly released today by the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration. The audit, "The Public Guidance Program Needs Additional Controls to Minimize Risks and Increase Public Awareness," examined the process by which the IRS Office of Chief Counsel develops tax guidance, including a pilot guidance program to request and evaluate public submissions before considering changes to existing regulations. The chairman and ranking member of the Senate Finance Committee requested the review after news articles questioned whether the pilot program was putting special interest before the public's interests when developing tax guidance. "We believe the pilot program does not present an increased risk of influence by special interest groups in the selection of guidance projects," TIGTA Inspector General J. Russell George said. "The pilot program did not directly create tax guidance or circumvent existing internal controls." "Although Counsel considers ideas from a wide variety of sources when selecting guidance projects for its annual business plan, it does not track all open projects on the business plan, which could lead to an increased risk of untimely actions, less management oversight, and less public awareness," George added. The audit makes seven recommendations to IRS, including expanding written procedures for developing and monitoring the guidance business plan, issuing more frequent updates to and establishing a reasonable expectation in the Priority Guidance Plan, and improving recordkeeping.

The Center for Audit Quality has weighed in on the Securities and Exchange Commission's proposal to delay certain internal control reporting requirements for smaller companies, in a letter suggesting that the commission use the postponement to better assess the costs and benefits of implementing new standards and guidance. The SEC has proposed pushing back by one year the Sarbanes-Oxley Section 404 deadline for non-accelerated filers to provide auditors' attestation reports on internal controls over financial reporting in annual reports, to fiscal years ending on or after Dec. 15, 2009. While stating that, "The benefits of complete 404 reporting ... should be available to investors in smaller companies," the comment letter from CAQ executive director Cindy Fornelli acknowledged the potential benefits of the delay in allowing the integration of forthcoming guidance from the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board and the Committee of Sponsoring Organizations into auditor assessments. The letter also urged the SEC to broaden its effort to evaluate the cost effectiveness of new regulations and guidance, particularly the PCAOB's Auditing Standard No. 5, by including input not only from reporting companies, but from investors, audit committee members, auditors and others. An affiliate of the American Institute of CPAs, the CAQ is dedicated to fostering investor and market confidence in the audit process.

Nonprofit software provider Serenic Corp., parent to the flagship Navigator product, okayed granting stock options to its directors and senior officers. The company granted 100,000 stock options to Bruce Saville, who joined the Serenic board last week; 85,000 to board members Don Caron, Ron Odynski, and chairman Dwayne Kushniruk; 50,000 to chief executive Randy Keith; 35,000 to corporate secretary David Tam; and 25,000 to CFO Paul Johnston.

The Internal Revenue Service has issued guidance for the proper pooling treatment of automobiles, light-duty trucks, and crossover vehicles that have the characteristics of trucks and cars under the dollar-value, last-in, first-out inventory method. To address the distinctions between cars and light-duty trucks, and in response to an Industry Issue Resolution Program request submitted by Miller Chevalier Chartered and the National Auto Dealership Association, the Treasury Department and the Internal Revenue Service issued Revenue Procedure 2008-23. Light-duty trucks are trucks with a gross vehicle weight of 14,000 pounds or less. Effective for tax years ending on or after Dec. 31, 2007, the revenue procedure provides a safe harbor pooling method, the Vehicle-Pool Method, for resellers of cars and light-duty trucks. The Vehicle-Pool Method allows a reseller to establish a new vehicle pool for inventories of new vehicles including new cars, new light-duty trucks, and new crossover vehicles including SUVs, minivans and other similar vehicles and a used vehicle pool for inventories of used vehicles. Revenue Procedure 2008-23 also provides the procedures for a reseller subject to the LIFO pooling requirements to obtain automatic consent to change to the Vehicle-Pool Method.

The American Institute of CPAs has ramped up its mobility efforts to allow CPAs to practice in other states, with mobility bills enacted now in 12 states and legislation pending in 22 other states.

The Securities and Exchange Commission has issued a report warning public pension funds that they risk violating the anti-fraud provisions of the federal securities laws if they do not have adequate compliance policies in place to prevent wrongdoing.

Australians are considered the world's richest superannuation holders, a report indicates. It says this is because of a very strong domestic currency and the government permitting citizens to drop as much as $1 million tax-free into their retirement savings. Superannuation is a pension scheme in Australia. It has a compulsory element whereby employers are required by law to pay a proportion of an employee's salaries and wages (currently nine percent) into a superannuation fund, which can be accessed when the employee retires After over a decade of compulsory contributions, Australian workers have close to a trillion dollars in superannuation assets with more money invested in managed funds per capita than any other economy. Compulsory superannuation in combination with buoyant economic growth has turned Australia into a 'shareholder society' where most workers are now indirect investors in the stock market. Consequently, a lively personal investment marketplace has developed, and many Australians take an interest in investment topics. According to the AFG Global Fund Management Index, our Aussie friends had an average of $63,794 invested in managed funds at the end of the last financial year. My wife’s cousin read this in the local Sydney paper. In fact, local super funds, on average, outperformed their peers in a top-10 list that included the United States, Canada, and France. To add to this, in the fiscal year that ended June 30, 2007, the amount handled by Australian managed funds grew by 32.4 percent. In comparison to our world, the value of American managed funds climbed by only 8.5 percent to $43,458 while those in Britain rose by 23.2 percent to $17,515. Ross Nayler, who is a principal with AFG Financial Planning, says that clearly the stronger Australian dollar, now trading at around 90 U.S. cents, plus specific laws allowing people to put up to $1 million tax free into their super savings helped make Australia the world leader. "One of the key messages is we've been at the top of the table for quite some time and we're getting further ahead.” In fact, for the period of five years to the second quarter of 2007, Australian managed funds posted a per capita growth rate of 97.7 percent. But now comes the clinker. Another survey, the AMP Superannuation Adequacy Index Report, for January to June of last year, found that 30 percent of Australian workers under the age of 40 would not have enough savings to retire comfortably. Moreover, it found that 3.4 million Australians across all working-age groups were falling behind in preparing for their twilight years. Nayler notes that minimum contribution levels are needed. Macquarie Research Economics expects then that Australian superannuation funds will post less spectacular returns in 2008. It points out that after recording huge gains in the past couple of years on the back of double-digit returns, growth in superannuation funds under management is set to be more subdued this year. Of course, I might add, as my cousin stresses, the absence of the $1 million contribution program is expected to slow down super growth rates in 2008. It may be their lead in superannuation will be dwindling.

The Internal Revenue Service has issued final regulations for tax deductions on domestic film productions, while revising the definition of the types of films that qualify for the deduction.

The Securities and Exchange Commission's Office of the Chief Accountant chose six professional accounting fellows for two-year terms beginning in 2008.

Senior financial supervisors from five countries - France, Germany, Switzerland, the United Kingdom and the United States - have issued a report assessing various risk management practices that banks and other financial services organizations have used that contributed to the recent turmoil in the world markets.

The House Subcommittee on Select Revenue Measures held a hearing to examine whether there is a need for a more uniform treatment of various derivative structures.

Fidelity Investments has released a report estimating that a 65-year-old couple retiring in 2008 would need approximately $225,000 to cover their medical costs in retirement, a 4.7 percent increase over the 2007 estimate of $215,000.

The U.S. economy declined by 23,000 private sector jobs in February, according to the latest monthly report by payroll processor ADP, the first decline the report has shown since 2003.