Tax

California accounting firm Macias Gini & O'Connell has acquired Moreland & Associates, expanding its Sacramento base to Newport Beach and San Marcos.

The American Institute of CPAs submitted written testimony to Congress for a hearing by the House Small Business Committee on modernizing the Tax Code for small businesses. The House Small Business Committee issued a report containing seven recommendations for improving the Tax Code in conjunction with the hearings. The recommendations included simplifying the home office deduction, updating the equipment deduction limits and record-keeping requirements, adjusting the business automobile depreciation limits and shortening depreciation schedules.

Accounting Today's eagerly anticipated Top 100 Firms report ranks the largest U.S. Accounting firms by revenue, offering both a wealth of statistical data and insightful analysis of what makes the best firms tick, as well as their plans for the future. This annual ranking includes a breakout of the biggest tax firms, and takes an in-depth look at what strategies the Top 100 are using to recruit and retain qualified staff in the current environment.

The House Ways and Means Committee has approved a bill that would equalize the disclosure standards of tax preparers and their clients.

The Maryland Senate passed a CPA mobility bill by a unanimous 47-0 vote about an hour before midnight on the final day of the Maryland General Assembly's 2008 session.

California pet sellers, beware. The state's Board of Equalization plans to send letters to pet associations and pet-and-feed stores to tell them that sales of dogs, cats and other animals are taxable.

Less than a week to go before April 15, and it's almost time to take a well-deserved rest after a long tax season.

House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Charles Rangel, D-N.Y., has introduced a bill to help struggling homeowners with a refundable tax credit, even as a bipartisan Senate bill faced a threatened veto from the Bush administration.

The Senate passed an amendment to the compromise housing bill that will allow money-losing businesses to elect to use accumulated alternative minimum tax credits and research and development credits early.

The Internal Revenue Service has been getting an average of more than 50,000 extra phone calls per day as a result of questions about the economic stimulus payment, and has received 379,000 tax returns from individuals filing solely to receive the stimulus payment.