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February 2007 |  BY Scott E. Miller |  Article

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY Preferred stock—a class of ownership with priority over common stock— once was issued mainly by large companies but now is common in small to midsize privately held companies, too. CPAABVs may be engaged to value preferred stock (also called preferred shares) to assist with capitalization of a company, bankruptcy reorganizations, a business merger or sale, exchanging preferred shares for debt or other types of equity securities, gift or estate tax planning, or many other reasons.

April 2006 |  BY Robin S. Lazarow |  Article

Here are some of the more important developments CPAs need to make their clients and employers aware of for 2006. Executive compensation rules under IRC section 409A. The American Jobs Creation Act’s new IRC section 409A makes sweeping changes to the tax rules governing nonqualified deferred compensation arrangements such as executive retirement, severance pay and 401(k) “wrap” plans.

January 2006 |  BY Mark P. Altieri, Richard A. Naegele |  Article

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY THE NEW BANKRUPTCY LAW protects taxqualified retirement plans—pensions, profitsharing and 401(k) plans—from creditors in bankruptcy. SEP AND SIMPLE IRAs ARE excluded from bankruptcy estates under the new law, even if they qualify as ERISA pension plans. TRADITIONAL AND ROTH IRAs that are created and funded by an individual are subject to an aggregate bankruptcy exclusion of $1 million.

November 2005 |  BY Lawrence S. Clark, Randall Hanson, James Smith |  Article

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY CPAs NEED TO UNDERSTAND THE IMPACT of the Bankruptcy Abuse Prevention and Consumer Protection Act of 2005 so they can advise clients how their relationships with or as debtors is altered. The two most important changes are the terms of access to Chapter 7 and changes to the homestead exemption provisions.

November 2005 |  BY Theresa Holt, Peter Poznanski |  Article

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY LAWS AND REGULATIONS PROHIBIT CPAs from disclosing clients’ personal financial information, but bankruptcy statutes require that very same information to go into the public record. CPAs can’t change the law, but they can help clients get through the bankruptcy process. PUBLIC ACCESS AIDS THE ADMINISTRATION of bankruptcy cases, promotes public trust and accountability in the system and encourages legal compliance.

April 2005 |  BY Richard A. Naegele, Mark P. Altieri |  Article

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY BENEFITS IN TAXQUALIFIED RETIREMENT PLANS generally are protected from the creditors of plan participants and insulated from claims in bankruptcy. PLANS NOT PROTECTED FROM CREDITORS are those that cover only the business owner andor the owner’s spouse and section 403(b) taxsheltered annuity plans whose assets are held in custodial accounts rather than in trusts.

April 2005 |  BY Edward J. Schnee |  Article

There are numerous legitimate business reasons to establish a buysell agreement for a closelyheld family business. Many of these agreements set the value for estate tax purposes when one of the shareholders dies. If the IRS rejects the price set to represent the value of the stock, a significant estate tax liability may result.

April 2005 |  BY Charles J. Reichert |  Article

A business that elects to be an S corporation continues to be taxed as such until the election is terminated. It can be terminated in any of three ways (1) The shareholders revoke the election, (2) the corporation no longer satisfies the eligibility requirements or (3) the corporation has too much passive income during the three previous tax years.

June 2004 |  BY Stanley Zarowin |  Article

The Right Way to Use PowerPoint Do you use PowerPoint, the Microsoft presentation software, to make sales pitches for new clients? Or do you use it, as a consultant would, to lay out indepth analyses in an effort to convince a client or your boss to adjust complex business strategies? If you use it for the former task—as a persuasion tool to highlight major talking points—then you’re using it to its best advantage.

November 2003 |  BY Edward J. Schnee |  Article

Although there are some signs the economy is improving, many businesses continue to fail. Recently the Tax Court considered the effect of an S corporation’s selling an asset while in bankruptcy. All S corporation shareholders contemplating filing for corporate bankruptcy need to consider the potential tax outcome of such a move.