Practice management

Worldwide revenue for the BDO International network, which includes U.S. member firm BDO Seidman, grew to $5.145 billion in the fiscal year ending Sept. 30, a 9 percent increase from last year.

The Internal Revenue Service has issued new guidance on implementing the recently amended tax return preparer penalty, which punishes tax preparers for taking "unreasonable positions" on tax liabilities.

Leaders of the House Ways and Means Committee wrote to President-elect Barack Obama asking him to end the Internal Revenue Service's private debt collection service.

It’s one thing to be a leader within your firm, however, it’s quite another to also be a leader within your community.

If you haven’t already, you might shortly be asked, “What are the tax implications of riding a bicycle to work?” And your answer will be for taxable years beginning after December 31, 2008, under Section 132(f)(5)(F)(i) a ”qualified bicycle commuting reimbursement fringe benefit” will be considered a qualified transportation fringe benefit.

In a review of Internal Revenue Service efforts to determine whether charitable and non-profit organizations are being used to divert funds to support terrorist activities, the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration suggested a number of steps the Criminal Investigation Division could take to improve counterterrorism efforts.

CCH SFS BUYS INTELLITAX

Firms today are facing succession-planning issues at an unheard-of pace. Blame it on the Baby Boomers and the overall demographics of the accounting profession and the population in general.Over the past year I have worked with several managing partners in helping them transition from one set of leaders to another. The question I often get is, "When is the time right?" Managing partners decide to pass the baton to the next generation at different times. Some decide it's time when they are in their early or mid-50s, since they want to do other things in life. Others will hold on until the last possible moment. Some never make a transition.

On Thursday, Congress passed a waiver of the minimum distribution rule for 2009, but not for 2008, for employer-provided qualified retirement plans and individual retirement accounts and annuities in H.R. 7327, the Worker, Retiree, and Employer Recovery Act of 2008. President Bush is expected to quickly sign it.The Treasury Department is studying whether to provide relief with regard to 2008 minimum distributions.

The Internal Revenue Service announced that the interest rates for the calendar quarter beginning Jan. 1, 2009, will drop by one percentage point. The new rates, as laid out in Revenue Ruling 2008-54 will be: -- 5 percent for overpayments (4 percent in the case of a corporation);-- 5 percent for underpayments;-- 7 percent for large corporate underpayments; and,-- 2.5 percent for the portion of a corporate overpayment exceeding $10,000.Under the Internal Revenue Code, the rate of interest is determined on a quarterly basis, based on the federal short-term rate. The most recent rates were computed from the federal short-term rate during October 2008 to take effect Nov. 1, 2008, based on daily compounding.

A completely revised Form 990 will require an overhaul of internal policies and procedures for most tax-exempt organizations, according to Joyce Underwood, director of nonprofit taxation at BDO Seidman's Institute for Nonprofit Excellence.

Once again this year, the headline for the Alternative Minimum Tax is another one-year fix with no permanent solution. The Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008 raised the AMT exemption amount for 2008 to $69,950 for joint filers and $46,200 for single filers. This represents another inflation-adjusted extension of the exemption amount designed to preserve the status quo and keep an additional 21 million taxpayers from being subject to the AMT in 2008. And, once again, without further action, the AMT exemption amount reverts to its pre-2001 level in 2009 unless further congressional action is taken.

The Internal Revenue Service should strengthen its approach to evaluating a pilot project for matching federal and state taxpayer information before it extends the tax compliance project to 45 states next year, recommended a new report from the Government Accountability Office.

IRS Commissioner Douglas Shulman said the agency would begin ramping up enforcement against tax abuses such as the avoidance of withholding taxes, especially on dividends.

Sen. Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, has written to congressional leaders criticizing a provision in the automobile industry bailout bill that provides government guarantees to mass transit agencies that have taken advantage of an outlawed tax shelter.

The United States and Liechtenstein have signed an agreement to exchange tax information, including details on the holdings of citizens who are sheltering money in the foreign bank accounts, but only when the U.S. already knows the names of the tax evaders.

Two California residents have been indicted for filing over $2 million in false tax refund claims using the names and Social Security numbers of dead people, with help from a CPA.

iPro One and American Business have teamed up to offer insurance products that wealth management advisors at CPA firms can market to their clients.

A group of Democratic representatives from the House Ways and Means Committee wrote a sternly worded letter to Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson warning him against expanding a controversial IRS Notice that allows banks to write off the tax losses of other banks they acquire.

The fourth of six defendants in a $60 million tax fraud conspiracy case has been sentenced to more than 17 years in prison for his role.