GASB issued a Preliminary Views document, Pension Accounting and Financial Reporting by Employers, listing what it believes are the most fundamental issues related to recognition and measurement of pension obligations by state and local government employers. The approach presented would move governmental pension accounting and reporting away from the
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PENSIONS GET FUNDING RELIEF President Barack Obama signed HR 3962, the Preservation of Access to Care for Medicare Beneficiaries and Pension Relief Act of 2010, on June 25. The act allows single-employer plans to elect to amortize over a longer period pension shortfalls caused by losses in asset value they
Two-Year Limit on Equitable Relief Petitions Upheld
The Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals reversed the Tax Court and upheld IRS regulations restricting to two years the period in which taxpayers can petition under IRC § 6015(f) for equitable innocent spouse relief from joint and several liability. Cathy Lantz was married to a dentist convicted of Medicare fraud.
Authors Contributing to the September 2010 Issue
Alexandra DeFelice is a JofA senior editor. Her primary role is planning, writing and editing technology articles for the magazine and website. She also helps to drive the JofA’s social media presence through the Facebook page, facebook.com/JournalofAccountancy, and Twitter account, AICPA_JofA. She graduated from Rutgers University with a degree in
Determining Ownership Changes When Stock Prices Fluctuate
In an effort to limit loss trafficking, Congress enacted IRC § 382 to limit the use of corporate net operating losses (NOLs) following an ownership change, which is defined generally as a greater than 50% change in stock ownership among certain 5% shareholders over a three-year period. In the event
2010 Tax Software Survey
The Journal of Accountancy and The Tax Adviser conducted a survey of AICPA members who prepared 2009 tax returns for a fee to determine which tax preparation software products were the most popular, what aspects of those products preparers liked, and what they disliked. Of the 17 products identified for
Fraud
The Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN), a unit of the U.S. Treasury Department, reported the first year-to-year decline in suspicious activity reports (SARs) since 1996—a drop from 1.29 million in 2008 to 1.28 million in 2009—but SARs indicating terrorist financing activity increased for the first time since 2004 after several
Gary Iskowitz, CPA
I am fortunate to have a successful practice comprised of a partner and 12 staff members; we work with high-income individuals in the Los Angeles area. I am also fortunate to have had both local and national television exposure. And I owe these things to an unlikely source—the Internal Revenue
New Life for Charitable Lids
One common estate planning technique the IRS has opposed or blocked for years is “charitable lid planning.” This technique relies on “defined value” and “value adjustment” clauses or similar provisions in wills, deeds or other transfer documents to cap the transfer taxes on estates, gifts or generation-skipping trusts at some
Blue-Ribbon Panel Narrows Field for Private Company Financial Reporting
A blue-ribbon panel tasked with providing recommendations on the future of U.S. accounting standards for private companies by the end of this year is focusing on models that are based on current U.S. GAAP but that would result in different standards for private companies, where warranted, compared with GAAP for
Best Practices for Exempt Organizations and Form 990
Tax-exempt organizations required to file federal Form 990, Return of Organization Exempt From Income Tax, which was expanded and revised beginning in 2008 tax years, now have some experience with the new requirements. They may have experienced much anxiety as they and their CPAs learned that the new Form 990
Advice to Clients in Uncertain Markets
In the “flash crash” on May 6, 2010, the Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped nearly 1,000 points only to recover more than 600 points by the market close. On the heels of the financial crisis of 2008, this incident only exacerbated investors’ concerns. Some strategies to manage volatility risk that
Son Liable for Father’s Unpaid Taxes
The Tax Court affirmed an IRS determination that a son is liable for his father’s unpaid taxes as the transferee of his father’s Florida condominium. Florida’s Uniform Fraudulent Transfer Act (FUFTA) did not protect the son from the liability. When his mother’s health declined in 1989, Scott Rubenstein moved from
Beware: Smart Phones are Facing Growing Virus Threats From Multiple Directions
Q: I recently bought a smartphone, and while I love its ability to access the Internet, to synchronize data with my office computer and to download and send e-mails when I’m out of the office, I’m worried about security. Not only did the phone come without antivirus software, but nowhere
Banking
The Federal Reserve, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, the Office of Thrift Supervision and the FDIC issued final guidance to ensure that incentive compensation arrangements at financial organizations take risk into account and are consistent with safe and sound practices. The guidance (available at tinyurl.com/26rfx3n) is
Corporate Finance Staffing Survey
Accounting is well suited to weather economic downturns. After all, bad economy or good economy, tax returns need to be prepared and audits completed. But what about CPAs in industry? The JofA partnered with the AICPA/UNC Kenan-Flagler Business and Industry Economic Outlook Survey Q2 2010 to learn more about how
I Didn’t Know That
In the May 2010 column (page 78) I wrote about a way to add the day of the week, in addition to the date, in the Windows 7 taskbar. Sherry Stricker, product manager in the Metro Park, N.J., office of Ernst & Young, advised me that you can do the
Financial Regulatory Reform: What You Need to Know
The Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act, which became law in July, will create new regulations for companies that extend credit to consumers, exempt small public companies from Sarbanes-Oxley section 404(b), make auditors of broker-dealers subject to PCAOB regulation and change registration requirements for investment advisers. The profession
Financial Reporting / International
For the fourth time in less than two years, the Group of 20 (G-20) leaders called for a single set of global accounting standards and urged FASB and the IASB to complete their convergence projects. “We re-emphasized the importance we place on achieving a single set of high quality improved
Currency Option Not a Contract in “Major/Minor” Shelter
The Tax Court held that a foreign currency call option is not a foreign currency contract under the plain language of the IRC § 1256 contract mark-to-market rules. Thus an unrealized loss existing on the date that a foreign currency option was transferred to a charity was disallowed. Section 1256
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
