Tax research and products provider RIA, a Thomson business, has upgraded its proprietary Checkpoint service, adding a research tool that can be used for tax and auditing simultaneously.The "bridge" comes in the form of RIA sister company PPC's e-Practice Aids, Microsoft Word and Excel versions of all of the editable practice aids in the related PPC Guide, including those from WG&L, and materials from the Securities and Exchange Commission.PPC's e-Practice Aids work with paperless engagement software or with Word and Excel."One thing we heard from our customers, tax people were saying 'There was a reason we work in taxes, because we didn't want to do auditing'" said Ron Burkett, RIA's director of product management, in response to Sarbanes-Oxley. "It helps them bridge over to something they may not be that familiar with."Checkpoint is featuring a series of other enhancements as well, including a customized home page capability, which allows users to customize their research platform by selecting from a list of predefined views including accounting and auditing; corporate finance; tax; and estate and retirement planning, and decide their significance. In addition, users can create their own home page by selecting the content panes based on content they subscribe to that best fits their research needs. For more information about Checkpoint, visit http://ria.thomson.com or call (800)-950-1216.

Five Treasury nominees were sworn in this week, including a new assistant secretary for tax policy, whose appointment has been held up by a senator for nearly five full months.Last week, Sen. Max Baucus, D-Mont., the ranking member of the Senate Finance Committee, agreed to release his block on Eric Solomon’s nomination. After approving the appointment of Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson in July, Baucus said that he would refuse to allow the committee to vote on any other nominations until he was satisfied with the agency’s plans to close the tax gap -- the difference between taxes paid and taxes owed in the country, which his estimates put at some $300 billion annually.

The Internal Revenue Service announced that it will now sell individual income tax return statistics by zip code -- charging $25 per state, or $500 for the entire nation.In previous years, the data, based on addresses shown on the returns when filed with IRS, had been made available for free. Zip code tables for both the 2002 and 2004 tax years are available for purchase.

The Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration has released a report to Congress, outlining a trio of priority objectives for the upcoming year. The report highlights the office’s audit and investigative work conducted between April 1 and Sept. 30 of this year. During those six months, TIGTA reports that it has completed 118 audits, and in the process, identifying more than $258 million in total cost savings and $1.4 billion in increased or protected revenue.

Retroactive beneficial tax legislation, such as the just-passed “Tax Relief and Health Care Act,” is always welcome.The legislation, which President Bush is expected to sign shortly, contains numerous tax provisions, including a slew of tax benefit extenders, energy tax incentives, health savings account changes, tax administration modifications and technical corrections to earlier tax legislation.

A New York judge has dismissed a lawsuit against H&R Block Inc. brought in March by New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer.Spitzer, now New York’s governor-elect, has said he will likely re-file the suit before the end of the year. The original lawsuit accused Block and its subsidiary, H&R Block Financial Advisors Inc., of fraudulently marketing retirement savings accounts to customers and drew a flurry of publicity. Two months later, Spitzer amended the lawsuit, accusing Block of punishing employees who refused to sell the accounts.

Aside from identifying a number of nuances in last year’s tax law changes and interpreting the effects of congressional leadership turnover, a new tax guide should help midsized business owners monitor a series of federal tax trends for 2007.Published by national CPA firm RSM McGladrey, the “2006 Tax Planning Guide” includes a Top 10 list of tax-planning strategies for midsized companies and issues owners should watch for on the horizon.