Small and mid-sized businesses turn to their accountants for guidance in business software.
What do CPAs really want in accounting software?
by Rick Telberg
At Large
[This article has been cited by AS411.]
A new review of the market for accounting software reads in many ways like a manifesto for accountants to mobilize.
First and foremost, the report, authored by market researchers at the Yankee Group, found that when deciding which software application to buy, all sectors of the small and mid-sized business arena place greater value on the opinions of accountants than those of technology consultants. The accountants’ opinions are particularly more important at businesses with fewer than 100 employees.
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The solution to staff shortages and turnover may be closer than you care to look. How’s does YOUR office rate?
by Rick Telberg
On Careers
No doubt about it: the CPA profession offers a great career. It offers opportunity, challenge and reward like few others.
But linger a while at the water cooler and you’ll hear some complaints. To be sure, misgivings and nay-saying are common in any workplace. But with the profession’s recruiting and retention issues, morale deserves special attention. Staff attitude is no longer an internal management issue; today it’s a strategic factor in remaining competitive.
So we’ve set out to find those cases in which a firm or company, boss or supervisor, or even the CPA or a co-worker can make a difference.
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Maybe It’s Too Late to Ask
The U.S. Patent Office has already issued 41 patents for tax strategies and there are 61 more applications in the pipeline, according to James Toupin, General Counsel, U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.
And neither the Patent Office nor the IRS think it’s a good idea, according to a report from RIA, the tax research company.
Toupin and IRS chief Mark Everson were two of a number of witnesses testifying at a hearing of the House Ways and Means Subcommittee on Select Revenue Measures titled “Issues Relating to the Patenting of Tax Advice.”
In an overview of the issues, the Staff of the Joint Committee on Taxation said: “Patents have increasingly been sought and issued for various tax-related claimed inventions, including strategies for reducing a taxpayer’s taxes. Patented tax strategies that have attracted recent attention include methods that purport to reduce taxes in connection with wealth transfers such as estate and gift planning as well as other situations.”
GET THE FULL REPORT HERE: “Background and Issues Relating to the Patenting of Tax Advice” (JCX-31-06) (pdf).
Commissioner Everson frets that the public may think a patented tax strategy means IRS approves of the strategy. In fact, he noted, a patented tax strategy carries no weight with IRS in assessing compliance with the tax law. He also expressed concern that tax patents place an increased burden on tax professionals, according to an RIA report.
Ellen Aprill, Associate Dean at Loyola Law School, Los Angeles, said that the “proliferation of tax strategy patents would change and burden tax practice.” Download her complete testimony.
See the list of patents and patents pending.
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The best assurance is storing your data offsite.
By Rick Telberg
for Hewlett Packard
Everyone knows how important it is to back up important files and applications, but many accountants still don’t have a comprehensive and coherent approach to this vital task. The plain truth of the matter is that backup is usually inconvenient, not very effective, or both.
Among accountants, the most common methods include backing up to a network hard drive, optical discs, or possibly a portable hard drive. Any finance manager using one of these methods on a regular basis is already ahead of the game.
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It depends on who you ask — auditors harbor more doubts than preparers.
by Rick Telberg
At Large
While CPAs in general believe that Corporate America has room for improvement when it comes to meeting the public’s expectations, those in business and industry tend to take a slightly more optimistic view than their counterparts in public accounting, according to our latest soundings.
When asked whether Corporate America fully understands and is properly responding to the public’s expectations for honesty and fairness, more of those respondents who work in business or industry believe that Corporate America “gets it.”
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George White of the AICPA reports today in the Tax Insider that LIFO may be on “life support.” He says the double whammy of a revenue-minded Senate and global-minded FASB could be trouble.
But we’ve heard that there’s more to the story. There’s an anecdote floating around Washington about a meeting a few weeks ago between Sen. Grassley (R-Iowa) and several of his Iowa constituents who oppose LIFO repeal. Grassley reportedly indicated that he is not personally behind the LIFO proposal; that it got started as a result of a misunderstanding between him and Sen. Frist (R-Tenn.). Grassley said that the LIFO proposal came up during consideration of the energy bill this spring when the oil & gas industry was the target. The LIFO proposal was the same one as last fall: repeal limited to the oil & gas industry. Grassley said he objected, saying he was opposed to targeted punitive measures, and adding that if LIFO repeal was to be considered, it should be across-the-board. Grassley told his constituents that Frist misinterpreted this throwaway line as representing Grassley’s support for across-the-board LIFO repeal.
As our source remarked: “Sounds a little pat, but that’s the story Grassley fed his constituents.”
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Net businesses have problems paying sales tax in multiple states.
Jared Vogt at Avalara explains why his company’s online tax-compliance service is so crucial
BusinessWeek: About $20 billion is lost by state governments every year to uncollected online sales tax, according to independent accounting research company Bay Street Group. As states become aware of this monumental shortfall, they are beginning to aggressively audit companies doing business across jurisdictional lines and stiffen the penalties for tax violators, as well as redefine the term “nexus,” or what it means for a company to have a tax-liable physical presence in a state. Read the full BusinesWeek article.
Get the Bay Street Group research report, “The Looming Crisis in Cross-Jurisdictional Internet Sales Tax Compliance,” prepared in conjunction with Avalara.
InfoWorld: The compliance burden here is a potential nightmare, provided it plays out the way Avalara says it will. Every transaction must be weighed against the sales tax jurisdictions of both buyer and seller as well as any third-party intermediaries. Screw it up and you’re in hot water. They’ve got an interesting white paper on the topic of SSTP.
Bay Street Group research also featured at:
– KIRO TV (seattle)
– E-Commerce Times
– CRM Buyer
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