With tax day fast approaching, CPAs may be feeling stressed. However, they may be able to make their own lives, as well as those of their small business clients, a little less tense by encouraging those clients to consider certain business expenditures before the upcoming tax season, according to Hewlett Packard and H&R Block.

Mphasis, which provides information technology and business process outsourcing through its operations in India, has launched an application service provider model of its Virtual Tax Room, used in outsourcing tax return preparation.

Triggered by congressional concerns over the marketing of abusive tax shelters by some accounting firms, the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board has proposed new rules restricting the ability of accountants to provide tax services to audit clients.

The Internal Revenue Service has teamed with the Department of Housing and Urban Development in an effort to expand the agencies' outreach to low-income taxpayers.

The majority of tax professionals who enter the financial planning business do so by hooking up with an independent broker/dealer firm, according to a report by market research and consulting firm Tiburon Strategic Advisors.

The Internal Revenue Service is co-sponsoring a free Webcast aimed at helping tax and payroll professionals who prepare individual federal tax returns to get ready for the upcoming filing season.

Putting to rest rumors that he would replace John W. Snow as Treasury Secretary, President Bush has reportedly asked Snow to remain in his cabinet.