Tick Marks

The Public Companies Accounting Oversight Board starts its 2010 road show in Charlotte, NC this April with trips to seven cities planned (though the New York and Jersey City stops effectively are two days in the same general area). Among agenda topics are: PCAOB Standard 7 (Quality Review), risk...

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The Illinois CPA Society has come up with six tax recommendations for younger filers: [1] take full advantage of available deductions and credits (such as the first-time homebuyer credit, child credit and lifetime learning credit). It is important to make sure that you have appropriate documentation, [2] e-file for...

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The Government Accountability Office has criticized the Public Companies Acccounting Oversight Board for its risk assessment audit standards. GAO says that the new standards could confuse auditors and unnecessarily push audit costs higher. Last year, PCAOB's chairman essential to user confidence and bedrock for future standards. CPA...

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Senators Harry Reid (D-NV, for now) and Max Baucus (D-MT) have introduced the American Workers, State and Business Relief [Tax] Act in the Senate. Former sponsor Charles Grassley (R-IA) criticized the bill's cost and other facets. Provisions in the bill include an extension of unemployment benefits, 65% subsidy...

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Ellis Jackson of allproman.com provides ten ideas for the self-employed to consider for potential tax savings. They include: mapping your house to see if you can justify a home office deduction; deduct health and dental insurance in full if you cover your whole family; meals and entertainment (at 50%!)...

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As the NCAA tourney approaches, Purdue's hopes took a sizable hit with Robbie Hummel's injury. Though less widely reported, Missouri (which was my other graduate program) also lost THEIR forward, Justin Safford. Both occurred in the first half of the respective games. At the risk of crying...

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A combination of a shaky economy, fiscal mismanagement (mostly in the form of excessive entitlements), unfunded federal mandates and balanced budget laws (with no capacity to print money to "solve" their problems) have many states seeking greater revenues. California is the well-known example of an economic mess, but other Western...

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Mike Solomon of CPA firm Amper, Politziner and Mattia expected a wave of taxpayers to traditional IRAs to Roth IRAs this year--primarily because Congress waived the $100,000 AGI limitation for the conversion during 2010. While acknowledging that the conversion required payment of taxes on the converted amount, Solomon believed...

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NOTE: Check out the President's Day Edition of the Carnival of Taxes at Don't Mess with Taxes, which includes my GAO Takes On IRS post from last week along with many other worthwhile posts.The Pennsylvania Institute of CPAs just released four videos showing the humorous and creative side of Certified...

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The Government Accountability Office evaluated Internal Revenue Service performance on five new tax provisions from last year's "Stimulus" law: the [first-time] homebuyer credit; the Making Work Pay (MWP)credit; the subsidy for taxpayers paying for health insurance under COBRA; the extension (to five years) of NOL carrybacks and Build America Bonds...

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Jody Padar compares her experience with running a mini-triathlon (and Jody, like me, is no lightweight) with preparing for the CPA exam. She points out that each takes guts, discipline and determination. Additionally, developing a schedule and sticking to it gives one a far better chance of succeeding....

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Also: Congressional Testimony on BudgetPresident Obama introduced his FY 2011, with unprecedented appropriations of $3.8 trillion. The budget includes a mixture of tax cuts and tax increases. Among the cuts are an extension of the "Making Work Pay" credit, an increased child care credit, eliminating certain capital gains...

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A variety of tax proposals were included in President Obama's State of the Union speech. The credit for hiring workers was mentioned by both Tom Ochsenschager (hereafter TO) of the AICPA, who believed that it would allow employers to avoid the employer share of Social Security and Dean Zerbe...

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Apologies for the gap since last post:[1] Make sure to go to Don't Mess with Taxes next Monday for the Carnival of Taxes. Time will tell whether I will be able to submit a post.[2] The full weight of tax season probably starts to hit practitioner bloggers next week....

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Actor Nicholas Cage announced that he soon will pay two liens totaling close to $13-14 million and has sold off mansions and other assets toward that end. The actor is suing former agent/accountant Samuel Levin for failing to assure that the actor's taxes were current.We congratulate the actor for...

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IRS Commissioner Douglas Shulman acknowledged that he uses a paid tax preparer for his [family's] own taxes. When pressed as to whether this was a good reason to simplify taxes, Shulman countered that tax law was established by Congress; not the IRS.Although somewhat embarrassing, I have no problem with...

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(Caution: Pun Alert) Former actor ("Eight is Enough", "Paradise") Willie Aames has passed three licensing exams and Waddell and Reed's internal training program and is set to practice as a financial planner within January. Aames will appear at a Waddell and Reed "kickoff" event on January 20. ...

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With little or no explanation, the IRS announced today that collections from delinquent taxpayers was $32 billion or 27% less than previously reported. IRS Taxpayer Nina Olson slammed the change while fellow IRS spokespeople Michelle Eldridge stated that the change in the 2005-07 collections would be explained in next...

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The Internal Revenue Service announced new regulations for tax preparers in a 55 page report today. Key items: paid tax preparers are required to obtain a preparer tax number; all preparers except attorneys, CPAs and EAs are required to take competency exams (the IRS indicated that it reserves the...

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The heavy cost of providing unemployment benefits to millions of workers in 2009 has straining state governments, leading some to borrow from the federal government and many to eye ways of extracting extra tax revenues from employers. The Journal of State Taxation found that 12 states, including Michigan, Virginia...

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NOTE: Happy New Year!! This probably will be my last post in 2009.Collin Peterson (D-MN) and Mike Conaway (R-TX) have introduced legislation (HR 4410)which would require that the Comptroller General (CG), who heads up the General Accountability Office, be a Certified Public Accountant. The bill would also require that...

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[Post #1040) Merry CHRISTmas to all and hope you have a great weekend as well....

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Political gridlock has caused a lot of uncertainty as to the future of the estate tax, with Democrats at cross purposes on how to proceed and some Republicans desiring the total repeal of the tax. The House had come up with at least a temporary fix but the Senate...

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Moved from Personal Finance to Accounting: Accounting WEB Blogger's CrewReinstituted in Accounting: Neil McIntyreAdded in Personal Finance: Two Pennies Earned Wisdom from Wenchypoo's Mental...

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Last week, I threw out as a discussion question an auditing issue: whether significant doubt about a business's ability to continue should be marked by qualifying the audit opinion or by the present practice of using an explanatory paragraph. This week's tax-oriented issue has more possible directions: eliminate deductibility...

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