Practice management

The White House has issued its budget for the coming year, and as usual it is already drawing complaints.

The Bush administration's budget proposals include a number of tax provisions, so the Treasury Department has released an explanation of the fiscal year 2009 revenue proposals, also known as the Bluebook.

CFOs remain concerned about their companies' ability to recruit skilled professionals, according to a new survey.

Every once and a while you come across a firm that knocks your socks off. Dezan Shira & Associates (dezshira.com) is just such a firm.

The Treasury Department and the Internal Revenue Service issued guidance on new pension-funding rules included in the Pension Protection Act of 2006.

The Internal Revenue Service has issued changes to the 2007 instructions for Form 1040 and Form 1040NR because of the Tax Technical Corrections Act of 2007.

GAO Comptroller General David Walker, who has spent the last three years on a "Fiscal Wake-Up Tour," again reiterated his agency's warning that the country is on an "imprudent and unsustainable fiscal path," while stressing the need for bi-partisan cooperation and the courage to make tough choices for the longer term. Walker, who has traveled to some 25 states on his tour, said simulations by the GAO and the Congressional Budget Office show that despite a three-year decline in the budget deficit, the U.S. faces "large and growing structural deficits driven primarily by rising health care costs and known demographic trends." The auditor general pointed out that the first wave of Baby Boomers has already filed for early Social Security retirement benefits -- and will be eligible for Medicare in just three years. Walker said rapidly rising health care costs are not simply a federal budget problem, but rather the No. 1 challenge to the U.S. and that the problem calls "for us as a nation to fundamentally rethink how we define, deliver, and finance health care in both the public and the private sectors." Walker said "While Congress and the administration are focused on the need for a short-term fiscal stimulus, our long-term challenge increases the importance of careful design of any stimulus package. It should be timely, targeted and temporary, while at the same time creating a capable and credible commission to make recommendations to the next Congress and the next president for action on our longer-range and looming fiscal imbalance."

The Senate Finance Committee held hearings on the nomination of Douglas Shulman to be commissioner of the Internal Revenue Service.

Congress can't seem to agree on what to do about an economic stimulus package, which could mire the effort to produce an effective package in time to do some good.

Billy Beane, vice president and general manager of the Oakland A’s, the keynote speaker at the recent Winning Is Everything Conference, explained how mathematics is transforming America’s pastime. Yes, I said mathematics.

A prominent Senate Democrat said that he would add rebates for senior citizens who depend on Social Security to the economic stimulus package, along with an extension of unemployment benefits.

The House voted by a 385 to 35 margin to pass the economic stimulus package agreed to by President Bush and House leaders.

Horwath International Association has been named one of the first full members of the Forum of Firms after reporting that it has implemented a globally coordinated quality assurance program.

The California Society of CPAs and the California CPA Education Foundation launched a Financial Leadership Forum to provide education, training and other resources for CPAs and business and finance executives.

For those who live and breathe cost segregation work, there’s an element of surprise surrounding how little most people — CPAs included — know about the tax-savings strategy.“On a recent proposal opportunity, a tax principal and I met with a potential client who owns 15 properties,” said Lawrence Knutson, CPA/ABV and consulting senior manager at Ehrhardt Keefe Steiner & Hottman PC in Denver. “The potential client had developed the properties over the last 20 years. He had a sole proprietor doing his tax return who is retiring. We came in and the first thing we mentioned was cost segregation. He had never heard of it. We see that more and more. I don’t think we’ve fully realized the size of the cost segregation market.”

Remember the theme from Cheers, the TV series about a friendly Boston pub and its memorable regulars? The opening theme refrain ran: "You want to go where everybody knows your name."Something similar is at work when it comes to building value propositions to grow revenue. To succeed, you've got to determine what makes the buyer tick.

There may be 2-D bar codes in the future of paper-filed returns, if recommendations from the Government Accountability Office are followed.In its end-of-year report on last year’s tax season, the GAO said that the Internal Revenue Service exceeded the previous year’s performance by most measures. However, it noted a number of opportunities to realize additional savings and increase tax compliance, with the barcoding of paper returns among them.

In the last few days before Congress adjourned for 2007, a number of tax law changes finally made it through the two chambers and on to President Bush. The president has either already signed or indicated his willingness to sign each piece of legislation. Several of the provisions enacted will have an impact on 2007 tax returns.Even with this flurry of activity, a number of pieces of legislation, including most of the energy-related tax proposals, an agriculture bill with tax provisions, military tax relief, and the extension of expiring provisions, as well as a fairly extensive list of offsetting revenue raisers, got left off the table and will be addressed again in 2008. The following is a summary of each of the tax laws enacted, the principal provisions, and the impact, if any, on 2007 tax returns.

Congressional leaders have struck a $150 billion deal on an economic stimulus plan that would give most taxpayers rebate checks of $600 to $1,200.

New York Governor Eliot Spitzer's proposed budget contains a provision that would tax marijuana at a rate of $3.50 per gram and controlled substances like cocaine at $200 per gram.