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PCAOB Proposes Rules Concerning Tax Services, Contingent Fees
The PCAOB voted unanimously at its open
meeting last week to propose for public comment certain
ethics and
independence rules concerning independence, tax services and contingent
fees.
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AICPA Statement & New FASB Standard Address Real Estate Time-Sharing
Transactions
The AICPA issued Statement of Position (SOP) 04-2,
Accounting for Real
Estate Time-Sharing Transactions, to address diversity in practice caused by
a lack of guidance specific to real estate time-sharing transactions. Areas
of diversity in practice have included accounting for uncollectibles,
recovery or repossession of time-sharing intervals, selling and marketing
costs, operations during holding periods, developer subsidies to interval
owners associations, and upgrade and reload transactions. Concurrently, FASB
issued Statement No. 152,
Accounting for Real Estate Time-Sharing
Transactions – an amendment of FASB Statements Nos. 66 and 67. That
Statement includes amendments to FASB pronouncements that are being made in
conjunction with issuance of the SOP. Copies of the SOP (product no. 014942)
are available at the Accounting and Auditing Literature section or by phone at 888-777-7077. FASB
Statement No. 152
may be accessed from the FASB’s web site.
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Accounting Method Change Procedure Issued by Treasury, IRS
The Treasury Department and IRS on last week issued a
revenue procedure that
sets forth the exclusive administrative procedures that taxpayers must use
to obtain automatic consent to change their method of accounting for the
second taxable year ending on or after December 31, 2003.
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Treasury, IRS Issue Section 409(p) Regulations
Last week, the Treasury Department and IRS also issued proposed and
temporary
regulations under Section 409(p). That section of the tax law
generally prohibits accruals or allocations under an employee stock
ownership plan (ESOP) that holds stock of an S corporation where the
ownership interest in the ESOP or in rights to acquire the corporation are
so concentrated among 10 percent owners that they hold 50 percent or more of
the interests in the corporation. The regulations replace proposed and
temporary regulations that were issued in 2003.
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Amended Circular 230 Promotes Ethical Practice by Tax Professionals
As part of an ongoing effort to improve ethical standards for tax
professionals and to curb abusive tax avoidance transactions, the Treasury
Department and the IRS issued final regulations
amending Circular 230. The
revisions to Circular 230, which is applicable to accountants who practice
before the IRS, provide standards of practice for written advice that
reflect current best practices and are intended to restore and maintain
public confidence in tax professionals. These revisions ensure that tax
professionals do not provide inadequate advice, and increase transparency by
requiring tax professionals to make disclosures if the advice is incomplete.
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Optional Sales Tax Tables Released
Publication 600,
Optional State Sales Tax Tables, which taxpayers may use
for their 2004 returns, are available on the IRS web site. The tax law
authorizing this optional deduction for state and local sales tax instead of
state and local income tax was enacted too late in the year to include the
tables in the tax instruction books.
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Download Free Promotional Brochures
To help you promote your firm's tax services, a new downloadable high-resolution PDF
brochure highlights changes to the tax code resulting from the Working
Families Tax Relief Act of 2004 and also covers filing and saving tips.
The brochure
Tax Saving Tips for 2004,
along with a
speech and PowerPoint presentation, are available online. MACPA members may
also download the brochure,
Setting Your Financial Records Straight,
which has been slightly modified to incorporate provisions of the Check 21 Act.
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Businesses
Discover Advantages of VoIP
Voice-over Internet Protocol (VoIP) allows companies to easily transfer
employees and their phones from branch to branch without incurring
substantial costs. Though the technology appears to be gaining popularity
among businesses, SearchNetworking.com says users must contend with poor
sound quality. To read this article in its entirety and much more about
developments in technology, access
Technology and Productivity Weekly, the MACPA's electronic
technology newsletter for industry professionals, sponsored by Information,
Inc.
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