Practice management

The RTRP program could serve as the base of a new voluntary credential.

World leaders at the G8 Summit meeting in Lough Erne, Northern Ireland, issued a declaration Tuesday calling for countries to share tax information and increase transparency to discourage tax evasion, and President Obama released an action plan for identifying actual company ownership.

Members of Generation X are having the most difficulty meeting their household expenses and dealing with other financial obligations, according to a new study by PricewaterhouseCoopers.

Congressman Chaka Fattah, D-Pa., a senior member of the House Appropriations Committee, has introduced legislation that would direct the Treasury Department to issue a legislative proposal to Congress concerning the viability of replacing the current income tax with a consumption tax.

Competition is mounting for accountants from similar service providers that are cannibalizing key clients.

In honor of Small Business Week, the IRS is offering two webinars for small-business owners.

The Internal Revenue Service plans to develop more guidance and training materials to inform taxpayers and tax preparers of the tax compliance risks associated with using virtual currencies like Bitcoin and “Linden dollars.”

A modest array of product announcements and partnerships came through last week yet did little to overshadow the larger, tech-related themes of interest to accounting and consulting professionals coming out of the 2013 AICPA Practitioners Symposium and TECH+ Conference.

The International Consortium of Investigative Journalists created a database of users of international tax havens over the weekend, and the group reported Monday that database received 2 million page views in its first 24 hours of operation.

Sen. Rob Portman, R-Ohio, and Rep. Charles Boustany, R-La., have introduced legislation aimed at allowing Enrolled Agents to present themselves as such and tout their credential wherever they practice.

The National Society of Accountants has met with officials at the Internal Revenue Service to try to persuade the IRS not to close down its Disclosure Authorization and Electronic Account Resolution e-Services.

For anyone evaluating the principles of the new service organization controls (SOC), particularly SOC 2, BrightLine CPAs & Associates principal and SOC reporting practice leader Greg Miller describes the five key principles and how to select the right one.

Practitioners who have clients with overseas accounts should alert them now that the FBAR (Foreign Bank and Financial Accounts Report) form must be received by the Department of Treasury no later than June 28 this year. Although the actual due date is June 30, this year it falls on a Sunday and there is no extension of the due date when it falls on a weekend.

The Internal Revenue Service has finalized the regulations for the 10 percent excise tax on indoor tanning services that was included as part of the health care reform law.

The House Ways and Means Committee held a hearing Thursday to examine corporate tax reform and the impact of offshore tax havens on base erosion and profit shifting by multinationals.

CohnReznick LLP is teaming up with enterprise-class financial close software maker BlackLine Systems to help Fortune 1000 clients automate and optimize traditionally manual, spreadsheet-driven financial close processes.

Mobile device management at growing CPA firms is causing IT departments concern, not only just over control issues but on educating staff on devices, apps, and the security risks that go with them.

Amit Jain of ADP Small Business Services discusses how the accounting firm of tomorrow will be different from accounting firms today, in an interview with Accounting Today editor-in-chief Daniel Hood.

The Internal Revenue Service has taken steps to correct problems with its oversight of applications for Individual Taxpayer Identification Numbers, or ITINs, but more improvements in the program are still needed, according to a new government report.

Amit Jain of ADP Small Business Services discusses the challenges of growing an accounting practice, retaining clients, increasing cash flow, recruiting and retaining staff members, and dealing with regulatory complexity, in an interview with Accounting Today editor-in-chief Daniel Hood.