Practice management

The Internal Revenue Service is looking for new members to apply for its Information Reporting Program Advisory Committee, including tax preparers.

The Justice Department's Tax Division hailed its victory in what it called an "important tax shelter case" that was decided in a Texas district court.

Senate Democratic and Republican leaders have reached a compromise on a bill to provide tax breaks and refinancing assistance to beleaguered homeowners hit by the mortgage crisis.

A new coalition wants to eliminate the taxation of Americans working abroad.

DiCicco, Gulman & Co. Gets World Series Trophy Visit

It didn't take long for critics to start throwing eggs at Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson's plan for overhauling the structure of the government's financial regulatory agencies.

New York State lawmakers have dropped a plan by former Governor Eliot Spitzer to raise taxes on millionaires.

BDO Consulting said it is forming a corporate advisory practice to provide strategic and financial consulting services to companies in distress.

NetWorth Services said it is offering a special promotion for its online cost basis calculation service, Netbasis, allowing users to buy one transaction and get one free until April 15.

IRS LAUNCHES E-POSTCARDS FOR TAX-EXEMPTSWashington, D.C. — The Internal Revenue Service has introduced an electronic filing system that allows small tax-exempt organizations to file Form 990-N “e-Postcards” to report their annual income.

If you thought that the tax legislation passed at the end of 2007 — both the Alternative Minimum Tax relief legislation and the mortgage debt forgiveness relief legislation — finally resolved the issues that would have to be addressed for the 2007 tax return filing season, you were mistaken. Congress was not done creating issues that would impact those returns. The Economic Stimulus Act of 2008, signed by President Bush on Feb. 13, 2008, has created additional issues for 2007 return filers.Most of the direct impact will be on lower-income individuals — individuals who are not normally required to file tax returns but who may wish to do so in order to qualify to receive a rebate check authorized under the new legislation.

Does most of your business result from Web sites? Or does most of it come from referrals? If it comes from referrals, as a lot of CPA firm business does, almost every potential client will still check out your Web site before giving you a call.Does yours grab and hold a visitor’s attention, making them want to read on? Studies show that you must win your visitor’s attention in less time than it takes to blink an eye, so dull, boring Web sites with extraneous information and poor graphics are a definite turn-off.

In a recent study of over 400 accounting firm compensation systems, I asked the following three questions:1. Do you believe that firmwide goals tied to owner compensation are a useful process for achieving higher levels of profitability in the firm?

As CPA firms grapple with ongoing staffing challenges and the norm of a “traditional” workplace begins to erode, management must be more flexible and innovative than ever.

Much of the election-year criticism of hedge funds misses the point when it focuses on the claim that hedge fund operators get unfair tax breaks, experts say.There is abuse in the current Tax Code when it comes to hedge funds, but it affects the investors, according to Alan Dlugash, a tax partner at New York-based CPA and business advisory firm Marks Paneth & Shron. They’re often subjected to taxes that wipe out nearly all — or more than all — of the income that they made from the fund, he observed.

A federal judge has dismissed major parts of a class-action lawsuit brought against tax prep chain Jackson Hewitt and a large group of its franchisees.

The Internal Revenue Service has begun posting tax advice videos on YouTube in an effort to get the word out about tax rebates and scams.

A report by the Treasury Department's inspector general faults the Internal Revenue Service for its management of taxpayer records.

Senate Finance Committee leaders have questioned the terms of the recent taxpayer-backed sale of Bear Stearns to JPMorgan Chase.

The Internal Revenue Service plans to open up hundreds of locations on Saturday, March 29, to provide advice to people who are eligible to receive an economic stimulus payment but who normally do not file tax returns.