Practice management

President Barack Obama visited the Great Hall at Cooper Union in New York to call on Wall Street executives to stop fighting efforts in the Senate to pass financial regulatory reform.

IMGCAP(1)]CPA firms, like many other businesses throughout the country, are feeling the sting of the recession.

The Senate Agriculture Committee has approved bipartisan legislation that would require derivatives to be traded on regulated exchanges and cleared through central clearinghouses, advancing the financial regulatory reform effort.

The Senate Finance Committee held the first of a series of hearings on the Obama administration’s proposal to tax financial institutions in order to recoup losses from the Troubled Asset Relief Program.

The Internal Revenue Service has released a draft schedule and instructions for corporations to report uncertain tax positions on their tax returns.

Investment research provider Morningstar, Inc. has launched Morningstar Valuation Services, a program that values privately owned firms and securities in areas such as the sale of a business, estate planning or financial reporting.

IMGCAP(1)]As small to midsized businesses work to do more with less, it is important for CPAs to offer their clients added value.

The Internal Revenue Service has begun mailing postcards to more than 4 million small businesses and tax-exempt organizations to make them aware of the benefits of the recently enacted small business health care tax credit.

President Obama’s Financial Fraud Enforcement Task Force has introduced a new Web site to educate Americans about how to protect themselves from fraud and report instances of fraud.

The Treasury Department has launched a new initiative to dramatically increase the number of electronic transactions, including quarterly tax payments, in order to reduce paperwork.

Technology is the accelerator for improving performance and meeting client requirements in today's economy. You can do more with less, but reducing investments in training and technology (as some have done this past year) only results in making your business less competitive.

Companies in the clean tech industry are garnering more attention these days, especially from CPA firms that see the sector as having big potential for growth.

In an economy still struggling on many fronts, installment sales offer a useful tool for many taxpayers to create liquidity to buy and sell property in an otherwise "credit-sparse" environment. With correct planning, the installment method can also defer taxable gain on these sales and, therefore, provide an additional reason to commit to an installment sales strategy.

At last count, 11 parties have submitted amicus curiae briefs to the U.S. Supreme Court as it considers whether to hear an appeal from the First Circuit decision in the highly charged Textron case, which centers on a corporation's tax accrual workpapers.

COURT RULES IN FAVOR OF IRS AND FREE FILE ALLIANCE

With the availability of lower-cost offerings, and a userbase more educated about what business intelligence is and can do for them, BIis becoming an understandable, usable and affordable initiative for small tomidsized businesses and CPA firms.

The term "basic analysis" has evolved in recent years. Where once it referred to the ability to determine a client's financial position, net worth, goals and willingness to take risks with a portfolio, more recent definitions have focused more intensely on the process of asset allocation, re-allocation and portfolio balancing.

As CPAs and investment advisors partner to map out a strategy for clients, the delicate balance between tax effectiveness and control over assets should serve as a centerpiece. This will help to create a strategy that maximizes investments, minimizes tax exposure, and helps maintain clients' long-term financial objectives.

A federal grand jury has indicted a California tax preparer on charges of tax evasion and possession of stolen government money after he was accused of stealing over $320,000 in tax refunds.

The First-Time Homebuyer Credit turned the 2010 tax filing season into a briar patch for the Internal Revenue Service, a frustrating experience for many taxpayers, and a new opportunity for scammers to rip-off the public, an IRS official told Congress.