Michael Cohn

Governments that default on their sovereign debt could be falling victim to the absence of accrual accounting in most public sector entities, and the International Federation of Accountants wants to change that.

The Internal Revenue Service and the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration said they are continuing to hear from taxpayers who have received unsolicited calls from individuals demanding payment while fraudulently claiming to be from the IRS.

A number of Internal Revenue Service contractor employees who did not undergo the required background checks had access to taxpayer data, according to a new government report.

The Securities and Exchange Commission has charged an accounting firm partner in Atlanta with insider trading in the stock of a client’s restaurant company while tipping off other clients, and he agreed to pay over $124,000 to settle the charges.

Many banks are unprepared for changes in accounting standards next year on how to calculate losses on their loans and leases, according to a new survey.

Six Democrats in Congress have sent a letter to President Obama, encouraging him to deny federal contracts to inverted corporations.

A group known as the Alliance for the Defense of Canadian Sovereignty has filed suit against the Canadian government challenging the constitutionality of an intergovernmental agreement between the U.S. and Canada to implement the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act.

The Federal Trade Commission said it is mailing more than $16 million in refund checks to 18,571 consumers who had paid money to American Tax Relief, a company that allegedly bilked financially distressed consumers by falsely claiming it could reduce their tax debts.

A small percentage of tax-exempt organizations have a substantial amount of delinquent payroll taxes, according to a new government report.

Ian Mackintosh, vice-chairman of the International Accounting Standards Board, described some of the failures of the convergence process with the Financial Accounting Standards Board in a speech Wednesday, insisting that wholesale adoption of International Financial Reporting Standards is preferable to convergence.

-The Internal Revenue Service has issued guidance for the 2014 fee year on how the IRS and the Treasury Department will administer the definition of a “covered entity” for purposes of the health insurance fee under the Affordable Care Act.

The National Federation of Independent reported a slight increase in its Optimism Index for small businesses in July, despite weakening sales.

The Institute of Management Accountants reported Tuesday that it has achieved a record amount of growth in the fiscal year ending June 30, 2014 in terms of membership numbers and people earning the IMA’s Certified Management Accountant credential.

The Internal Revenue Service is making its new Taxpayer Bill of Rights available in six different languages.

Pittsburgh-based CPA firm Schneider Downs announced a leadership change Tuesday, naming Timothy J. Hammer and Steven D. Thompson as co-managing shareholders, effective immediately.

Wolters Kluwer Financial Services has partnered with Broadridge Tax Services on combining their cost basis and tax reporting compliance systems.

The Internal Revenue Service has updated the Withholding Foreign Partnership and Withholding Foreign Trust agreements as part of the process of implementing the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act, or FATCA.

Jobs gained during the economic recovery following the Great Recession pay an average of 23 percent less than the jobs lost during the recession, according to a new report from the U.S. Conference of Mayors.

Many U.S. households are not adequately prepared for retirement, according to a new report from the Federal Reserve that found 31 percent of non-retired respondents indicating they have no retirement savings or pension, including 19 percent of those ages 55 to 64.

Big banks and wealthy investors are accused of benefiting from a tax credit program that is supposed to help poor communities, according to a new Senate report.