The sweeping changes made by the health care reform legislation (the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act and the Health Care and Education Reconciliation Act of 2010) will become effective over the course of several years. However, some employer-related changes are effective as early as the first plan year that
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The magazines
IRS Amends Plan for Uncertain Tax Positions
The IRS unveiled a number of significant changes to its plan to require certain business taxpayers to report uncertain tax positions on their tax returns (see Announcement 2010-75 and Announcement 2010-76). The changes, released in September, come in response to numerous comments received on the proposal and on the draft
Expert Testimony Guidelines for CPA Valuation Analysts
When giving expert testimony, CPA valuation analysts should be prepared to have their reports and testimony withstand the scrutiny of litigation and cross-examination. The following guidelines can help the valuation analyst prepare for potential vulnerabilities that opposing legal counsel may try to exploit. —By Robert Reilly, CPA/ABV/CFF, (rfreilly@willamette.com) a managing
Widen the Search Net When Hunting for an Old E-Mail
Q: I was searching frantically for an e-mail I received some weeks ago, and it never showed up in my search. I was about to give up when I decided to check my Deleted Items folder. And, sure enough, there it was. Why didn’t my search locate it there? A:
Navigating Nexus
Nexus can be a hidden danger for a company with a multistate presence. Certain activities might cause nexus for sales and use tax, income tax, franchise tax or other business taxes. One key to successfully navigating these widely varying provisions is for tax professionals to review the statutes and rulings
Banking
FDIC-insured commercial banks and savings institutions earned an aggregate profit of $21.6 billion in the second quarter of 2010, a sharp improvement from the $4.4 billion in losses recorded in the second quarter of 2009. This is the industry’s best quarterly earnings since the third quarter of 2007. Despite the
A Better Idea
An item in the August issue, “Averaging noncontiguous cells that contain some zero values” (page 73), generated several ideas from readers for a better way to address the problem. David M. Fogel, a CPA in Roseville, Calif., was the first to suggest this formula, noting it could be used in
Preparer Registration Draws Concerns
The IRS moved ahead with its program to register tax return preparers, as aspects of the plan drew concerns and recommendations from a wide range of practitioners and policymakers, including the AICPA. In late September, the IRS issued final regulations (TD 9501 and TD 9503) on preparer tax identification numbers
Highlights
Unlike their discussion paper, Leases: Preliminary Views (available at tinyurl.com/lugqe2), published in March 2009, which focused primarily on lessee accounting, the exposure draft, Leases, would result in changes on both sides of a lease transaction. The proposal includes simplified accounting for short-term leases—leases having a maximum term of 12 months
A Competitive Analysis of Business Valuation Services
The business valuation practice area is maturing, and rapid growth is no longer the norm for the profession’s established firms. Although demand for valuation services is robust, it is harder for firms entering the field to earn superior returns unless they have a competitive advantage such as some existing expertise
Stock “Loans” Ruled Sales
In three cases this summer, the Tax Court ruled against purported stock loans that it said were sales. One case involved millions of dollars in built-in gain and IRS-asserted deficiencies totaling $30 million for Denver multibillionaire Philip Anschutz. Two other cases involved participants in the Derivium “90% stock loan” abusive
Whose Goodwill Is It?
The U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Washington recently held that goodwill created while a dentist was employed by his solely owned corporation belonged to the corporation and not to him. As a result, the dentist was required to characterize as a corporate dividend rather than a long-term
Shaping the Future
Paul Stahlin is acutely aware that his term as AICPA chairman appears to be on course to intersect with a series of major changes for the profession. The year ahead holds the potential for a shift to different accounting standards for private companies. FASB and the International Accounting Standards Board
Financial Reporting
FASB issued a Proposed Accounting Standards Update (ASU) that is intended to clarify how defined contribution pension plans should classify and measure loans to participants. Under the Proposed ASU, Plan Accounting—Defined Contribution Pension Plans (Topic 962), Reporting Loans to Participants by Defined Contribution Pension Plans (a consensus of the
Regulation
The SEC set up a public comment page on its website to solicit input onrule making under the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act. Under a new process, the public will be able to comment before the agency even proposes its regulatory reform rules and amendments. Additionally,
Personal Financial Planning
Banks, thrifts and credit unions received a new framework for providing clear and balanced information to consumers about the risks and benefits of reverse mortgages under final guidance issued by the Federal Financial Institutions Examination Council. The guidance (available at tinyurl.com/3xdddl7) is of importance to CPAs who may consider
Hinton and Hughes Receive Outstanding CPA in Government Awards
Russell W. Hinton, state auditor of Georgia, and Peter Hughes, director of internal audit for Orange County, Calif., received the AICPA’s Outstanding CPA in Government Awards. Hinton, who received the state award, instituted separation of accounting and auditing duties by creating the State Accounting Office, which is independent of the
International
The IFRS Interpretations Committee, the interpretative body of the IASB, published proposed guidance on the accounting for stripping costs in the production phase of a surface mine. The committee was asked to consider how to account for the process of removing waste from a surface mine in order to
Economy
Unemployment, government regulation and availability of credit caused optimism among CPA financial executives to drop sharply this quarter, and now half of executives do not expect the U.S. economy to return to pre-recession levels until after 2012, according to a survey conducted by the AICPA and the University of North
New Pathways to Accounting Excellence
This month, the Pathways Commission, a new commission on accounting higher education, will hold its first formal meeting to begin charting “a national higher education strategy for the next generation of accountants.” This commission is a joint effort of the American Accounting Association (AAA) and the AICPA. The commission is
Features
FROM THIS MONTH'S ISSUE
4 ways solo practitioners can stand out
Five years ago, a grieving Angel Zhen started his own CPA firm with no clients and no revenue. Today, he has 300 clients, $600,000 in revenue and 12 weeks of annual vacation. In this JofA article, he shares how he set up his firm and how you could do the same.
From The Tax Adviser
April 30, 2026
Current developments in taxation of individuals: Part 2
April 30, 2026
