Practice management

Employers remain in a holding pattern through 2014 regarding a provision of the Affordable Care Act that the Internal Revenue Service is not yet enforcing.

The IRS Return Preparer Office has updated total numbers of federal return preparers who hold PTINs.

Many of my stories occurred many years ago—some are from a half century ago—so the question is, are they still relevant and why am I telling them now?

Highlights of some of our favorite tax-related blogs from the past week.

A coalition of a half dozen business organizations, including the American Institute of CPAs, have banded together to express their opposition to a proposal from the Senate Finance Committee to require businesses to use the accrual method of accounting for tax purposes.

The fact remains that when CPAs and accountants hear the word “sales,” they tend to run away as fast as possible yet when providers and vendors to the profession hear the same word, they see opportunities to meet their monthly or quarterly quotas.

Refundo, a provider of low-cost tax-related bank products, has inked a deal with “socially responsible” San Francisco-based lender LendUp to couple short-term loans with Refundo's refund-processing platform for tax professionals.

The National Underwriter Co., a publisher of tax, insurance and financial planning information, has released the newest addition to its Tax Facts reference library, Tax Facts on Individuals & Small Business.

A former Internal Revenue Service employee has pleaded guilty to stealing identities from an IRS Service Center in Fresno, Calif., and using them to claim more than $1,745,000 in fraudulent tax refunds and obtain more than $175,000 in refunds from the IRS.

For many accountants, whether they're sole proprietors or managing partners at top 100 firms, managing the marketing efforts of their firm seems like a tricky proposition.

The Internal Revenue Service has released more documents in response to a Freedom of Information Act request from Tax Analysts for training materials used in guidance for the IRS Exempt Organizations determinations office.

Thomson Reuters has released a retrospective report on the key tax developments of 2013, which included a major federal tax law as well as many significant new cases, regulations, rulings and revenue procedures. 

The Internal Revenue Service has released a set of proposed regulations to prevent abuses of the partnership basis adjustment rules, disallowing partnership loss transfers to avoid some of the abuses uncovered by the Enron scandal.

The Internal Revenue Service has decided to postpone a change it had planned for this year to limit the number of e-file signature authorization documents for filing Form 1041 estate and trust tax returns to a single 1041 return rather than multiple returns.

The plaintiffs who lost a recent lawsuit trying to prevent the federal government from providing tax credits to purchase health insurance on federal exchanges have filed for an expedited appeal in the case.

Keeping an eye on all of the legislative and regulatory changes that occur throughout the course of the year is no easy task.

McGladrey has released a new white paper providing typical costs and considerations related to deciding which ERP platform a client should purchase.

A federal appeals court has held that evidence seized during a premises search of a taxpayer's home by armed IRS agents, possibly in violation of statutory authority, was nevertheless admissible.

Even though tax season for individual tax returns has been delayed until January 31, the Internal Revenue Service and the Free File Alliance are opening up free electronic filing for taxpayers with adjusted gross incomes of $58,000 or less.

Vin Colman is PricewaterhouseCoopers’ U.S. Assurance Leader and a member of PwC’s U.S. Leadership Team. He began running the firm’s Assurance practice, which includes audit and other services, last July when the firm reorganized its management ranks.