Practice management

A significant amount of planning is typically involved before most major events. For example, the D-Day invasion was planned and scheduled with extreme detail months before its execution on June 6, 1944. Likewise, accountants each year experience a tax season that requires detailed planning and precise execution.

A new Inspector General report faults the security of the computer connections at the Internal Revenue Service.

Rootworks CEO Darren Root describes how firms should develop more of an entrepreneurial mindset, in an interview with Accounting Today managing editor Danielle Lee.

St. Louis-based Regional Leader Brown Smith Wallace announced that co-founder Harvey Wallace will step down as managing partner at the end of the year, with the firm’s current partner-in-charge of audit, Anthony Caleca, stepping into the MP role on Jan. 1, 2016.

Highlights of some of our favorite tax-related blogs from the past week.

The sharing economy has created untold numbers of micro-entrepreneurs, who provide services through digital-age apps.

The House passed a highway funding bill Thursday that includes a provision reviving the use of private debt collectors by the Internal Revenue Service.

Sales tax technology provider Avalara is integrating with EPiServer, an ecommerce and digital marketing software provider that has become a certified solution partner for Avalara.

Wolters Kluwer, CCH Small Firm Services has added new features and integration to the 2015 edition of its professional tax preparation software products, ATX and TaxWise.

Too many firms are looking for value in all the wrong places

In his first big personnel decision, House Speaker Paul Ryan put the committee that writes U.S. tax law in the hands of Texan Kevin Brady, who agreed to stand aside last year when Ryan wanted that chairmanship.

One year after the announced closing off of the Double Irish tax arrangement, U.S. multinationals once again turned their attention to Dublin as Ireland announced details of the Knowledge Development Box, or KDB.

The American Institute of CPAs and the National Association of State Boards of Accountancy have proposed to create a “Retired-CPA” status to deal with the wave of Baby Boom retirees in the profession.

Branding. Advertising. Sponsorships. Those three activities were once the heart of accounting marketing. While they are still important, they are not currently driving most marketing activity. Today, it’s all about growth.

Liberty Tax offices with onsite health insurance agents opened on November 1 to offer taxpayers help with Obamacare enrollment and plan renewals.

Internal Revenue Service commissioner John Koskinen told a group of tax practitioners that budget cuts at the agency are harming not only taxpayers, but tax practitioners as well, and warned that unless Congress acts on tax extenders legislation, tax season might need to be delayed next year. At the same conference, National Taxpayer Advocate Nina Olson complained of declining taxpayer service levels by the IRS and obstructions to the work of her office on behalf of taxpayers.

The Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit has just handed the American Institute of CPAs a victory in its dispute with the Internal Revenue Service over tax preparer credentials.

Careful planning is a must to maximize the effect of deductible assets on a business return.

Though Donald Trump devotes an entire chapter of his just-published book “Crippled America” to his tax proposal, it remains difficult to see how it will have a detrimental effect on the Republican presidential candidate's bottom line—as he has often claimed while pitching the plan in speeches and media appearances.

President Obama signed into law on Monday a two-year budget deal that Congress approved last week to raise the debt limit and avert a default. To help pay for it, the bill includes a provision that will make it easier for the Internal Revenue Service to audit large partnerships, including hedge funds, private equity firms and even accounting firms.