Tax planning

The National Society of Accountants is protesting an obscure new tax-reporting standard that it complains flew "under the radar" when it was stealthily inserted into an unrelated piece of Congressional legislation.

Two CPA firms on California's central coast have announced a merger: Bianchi, Lorincz, Huey, Hudson & Co. and Kasavan & Pope.

Grant Thornton CEO Edward E. Nusbaum has worked with the firm for 28 years, but since he took over the helm, the Chicago-based firm has more than doubled its revenue in the last four years, reaching $940 million in 2006.

The Internal Revenue Service has established new electronic filing rules that it hopes will help quickly identify fraud schemes such as phishing.

You might be surprised what qualifies as an unforeseen circumstance for the partial exclusion of gain on the sale of a personal residence. Under this special rule, taxpayers are allowed to exclude gain up to a reduced maximum exclusion amount under Section 121(c) if the sale is due to a change in place of employment, health, or unforeseen circumstances even though it was used for less than two of the five preceding years as the personal residence.

Three academics from the U.K. who have written a book about auditing, and a Virginia professor who has developed a taxation education curriculum, will receive awards from Deloitte & Touche’s not-for-profit Deloitte Foundation.

The Internal Revenue Service named Linda Stiff as the replacement for outgoing Acting Commissioner Kevin M. Brown.

Accounting firm Lovoy, Summerville & Shelton has acquired Granberry & Associates, allowing the firm to expand its client base beyond its home town of Birmingham to Granberry's turf in the Auburn-Opelika area of Alabama.

The Internal Revenue Service has granted relief to some homeowners struggling to rebuild after Hurricane Katrina devastated the Gulf area in August 2005 so they can continue to qualify for a low-income housing credit.

Following on the heels of his former boss, Internal Revenue Service Acting Commissioner Kevin M. Brown plans to leave the IRS in mid-September to become chief operating officer of the American Red Cross.

Nearly 55,000 tax-exempt organizations owed close to $1 billion in unpaid payroll and other federal taxes as of last September, according to a report released by the Government Accountability Office.

CCH has appointed Gene McGovern as vice president of tax and accounting publishing, replacing Catherine Wolfe, who was named U.K. CEO of the publisher's parent company, Wolters Kluwer, earlier this year.

Remember the old days? Forms shipped off to service bureaus? Is it possible that manual data entry will seem as quaint within a few years?

After the release of a stinging report criticizing the Internal Revenue Service for shutting down the TeleFile program, leading members of the Senate Finance Committee lashed out at the IRS's decision.

Accounting firm BDO Seidman saw its revenue increase $31 million to $589 million in the fiscal year ended June 30, 2007.

Members of Congress have been calling for raising taxes on the profits of private equity firms and hedge funds, along with taxing the incomes of their top managers at the same rate as managers of corporations.

United States v. Stein, a U.S. District Court for the Southern District Court opinion (July 17, 2007) by District Judge Lewis Kaplan, is fascinating reading, and may have significant implications for a number of firms.

A former tax return preparer has been sentenced to 151 months in prison for participating in a tax fraud scheme to hide income and assets in bogus trusts, according to the U.S. Justice Department.

TIGTA Questions IRS's Questionable Refund ProgramWASHINGTON, D.C. - A new Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration audit has found that changes in the Internal Revenue Service's Questionable Refund Program, along with a significant technological failure, dramatically decreased the effectiveness of the program for the 2006 filing season.

U.S. Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson plans to convene a conference in the coming week that could lead to an overhaul of the corporate tax system and a cut in corporate taxes.