The Third Circuit Court of Appeals, reversing the Tax Court, held that a state that paid taxpayers installment interest on amounts owed pursuant to an eminent domain settlement did so under its borrowing authority, and the interest therefore was tax-exempt. According to the court, the interest was paid due to
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Criminal minds
This is more than a story about six men, all of them admitted white-collar criminals. It is more than a story about their fraud schemes, which resulted in total combined losses of nearly $4 billion. This is the story of what CPAs can learn from these men—from their motives and
Steve Chaney, CPA
One month shy of six years at Arthur Andersen, I left the firm and started my own practice in the same day. My church contacted me because I was the treasurer on the board. They told me that the business administrator had resigned and asked me, “What are we going
Windows 7 & Vista logo key shortcuts
The following Windows 7 and Vista logo key shortcuts generally apply to Explorer windows, application windows, and browser windows:
Technology / Management accounting
Concerns over technology breaches and data security are soaring among the largest U.S. tech companies, according to a report from accounting and consulting firm BDO. An examination of the most recent SEC 10-K filings for the 100 biggest publicly traded technology companies found that 71% listed data-security breaches as a
Gridlock
Q: Help! I upgraded from Excel 2003 to Excel 2010 because I thought that Excel 2010 provided a larger worksheet grid, but I find that Excel 2010 provides the same 65,536 rows that I had before. I’ve looked for an option for displaying additional rows, but I can’t find one.
What’s your fraud IQ?
Fraud is not an accounting problem or an internal control problem; it is a human problem. Not even the strongest system of controls can eliminate all risk of organizations’ being defrauded by employees who are sufficiently motivated to find loopholes, ways to override controls, or opportunities for collusion. While most
Taxpayers residing outside U.S. questioned at U.S. border regarding back taxes
Taxpayers traveling to the United States with unpaid U.S. tax assessments can be detained at the border, questioned, and flagged for follow-up enforcement. If a taxpayer has an unpaid tax liability and is subject to a resulting Notice of Federal Tax Lien, the IRS may submit identifying taxpayer information to
Key threat
Q: My colleague says keylogging malware represents a significant security threat. Do you agree, and, if so, how can we minimize this type of threat? A: I agree with your colleague. Keylogging spyware can be a serious security threat that is difficult to combat and often goes undetected by popular
Authors contributing to the August 2012 issue
Supreme Court Upholds Health Care Law page 12Sally P. Schreiber, J.D., is a JofA senior editor. She was a tax associate with a large law firm in Philadelphia for more than 10 years and was an editor with RIA for 13 years. Alistair M. Nevius, J.D., is the JofA editor-in-chief,
Protecting privacy
Under pressure from regulatory requirements, professional standards, and client expectations—not to mention increasingly sophisticated hackers—CPA firms are emphasizing efforts to protect the privacy of confidential information under their purview. The following steps can help firms mitigate the risk of a reputation-damaging data breach: Identify and classify the types of information
TIGTA, Congress target identity theft
On May 8, the House Ways and Means Oversight and Social Security Subcommittees held a hearing on tax fraud involving identity theft. The same day, the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration (TIGTA) released a report saying the IRS does not handle identity theft issues well (TIGTA Rep’t No. 2012-40-050).
Accounting firm’s payments to owners flunk independent-investor test
The Seventh Circuit held that an accounting and consulting firm organized as a C corporation could not deduct payments to related entities because they were dividends, not compensation for services rendered by the company’s owners. The firm was founded in 1979 by three accountants. During the tax years at issue—2001,
Charitable deduction erased by statement’s omission
The Tax Court upheld a disallowance of more than $22,000 of a couple’s charitable contribution deduction solely for the lack of a contemporaneous statement from their church, the donee, that the couple received no goods or services in return. The taxpayers, David and Veronda Durden, made the contributions by check,
Proposed revisions clarify responsibilities for preparers
In accordance with recently proposed revisions to professional standards, CPAs who prepare financial statements for clients would consider that a nonattest bookkeeping service and would no longer be required to perform a compilation service with respect to those financial statements unless engaged to do so. The changes, proposed in June
Auditing / Compilation and review
The AICPA issued technical guidance on emphasis paragraphs in the auditor’s reports and on independence impairment in compilation reports. Technical Inquiry and Reply (TPA) 9160.28 regards combining going-concern emphasis with another emphasis-of-matter paragraph. This TPA explains that although AU Section 508, Reports on Audited Financial Statements (AICPA, Professional Standards), does
Hide and link
Q: When I open a file that contains external links, Excel 2007 asks whether I want to update those links. Sometimes Excel is unable to update a link and, in this case, I would like to delete the link formula. However, the dialog box does not indicate the worksheet or
InPrivate browsing
Q: I prefer to browse the internet using Internet Explorer’s InPrivate Browsing mode to better protect my computer, but I find it time-consuming to constantly switch to this mode. Is there a way to make InPrivate Browsing my default setting? A: As you mentioned, Microsoft Internet Explorer offers InPrivate Browsing,
Tax compliance for acquisitions: Prepare before purchasing
Fears of a “double-dip” recession in 2012 may have subsided, but the overall economic forecast remains uncertain. Therefore, companies are looking beyond organic, internal growth to external growth sources to bolster company performance. A recent study by The Boston Consulting Group (BCG) touted the power of acquisitions for growth during
Managing cybersecurity risks
CPA firms and other businesses need to keep cybersecurity top of mind as they look to cash in on opportunities created by the growth of mobile and cloud computing. “It’s all about managing risk,” accounting-technology expert David Cieslak, CPA/CITP, CGMA, told a packed audience during his annual Security Update session
Features
FROM THIS MONTH'S ISSUE
Flip out with the latest Tech Q&A
The September Technology Q&A column shows how to create dynamic to-do lists with Excel's checkboxes and also how to set up multifactor authentication texts that don't rely on phones. Flip through both items and view a video walkthrough in our digital format.
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