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AICPA Urges Congress to
Restrict Patents for Tax Strategies
Because of member concern about the granting
of patents for tax strategies, the AICPA recently voiced its opposition to
the practice to the House and Senate Judiciary Committees, the House
Ways and Means Committee and the Senate Finance Committee. The AICPA’s
letters to Congress underscored the Institute’s belief that patents issued
for tax strategies are “contrary to sound public policy because they
undermine the integrity, fairness and administrability of the tax system.”
The letters also stated, “The conflict with Congressional intent highlights
a serious policy reason against allowing patent protection for interpreting
the law. Allowing patents on strategies for complying with any law or
regulation is not sound public policy because it creates an exclusivity on
interpreting the law.” The AICPA also has created this
web
page as a resource on tax strategy patents.
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FASB Private Company
Group Announces Members
The Private Company Financial Reporting Committee announced its inaugural
members last Tuesday. The committee is charged with providing
recommendations to the Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB)
concerning whether and where there should be differences in prospective and
existing accounting standards for private companies. The committee is part
of a joint initiative between FASB and the AICPA and, at a macro level, is
charged with finding ways for the board to improve its current
standard-setting process to better meet the needs of private companies and
the users of their financial statements. For a list of the committee’s
inaugural members – four CPA practitioners, four financial statement
preparers and four users of private company financial statements – access
the press
release.
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IRS Revises Offer in
Compromise Application Form
The IRS released the newly revised taxpayer application for an
offer in compromise, the Form 656 package, last week. The Form 656
package was last revised in 2004 to help taxpayers correctly and completely
prepare an offer and reduce the chances of the offer being returned for
omissions. The new form retains the taxpayer burden reduction features while
adding significant changes as a result of the Tax Increase Prevention and
Reconciliation Act of 2005 (TIPRA). The Form 656 package is now available on
the IRS.gov web site in
the Forms and Publications section and will be available at IRS walk-in
offices shortly.
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Direct Deposit Refunds
Top $100 Billion; Now They Can Be Deposited in up
to Three Accounts
For millions of Americans, the refund check is no longer in the mail;
it’s in the bank. According to the IRS,
direct-deposit refunds soared over the $100 billion mark last week as a
growing number of taxpayers are choosing the speed and convenience of direct
deposit, rather than receiving a paper check. As of March 2, 35.6 million
taxpayers had chosen to have their refunds deposited directly into a savings
or checking account this year, up 5.2 percent over last year at the same
time. These direct-deposit refunds totaled $101.5 billion, an 8.7 percent
increase over last year at this time. In the past, taxpayers were only
allowed to designate one bank account for their direct-deposit refund. But
this year for the first time, taxpayers can split their refunds among up to
three accounts held by as many as three different U.S. financial
institutions. Though most people are still opting to use just one account,
about 37,000 taxpayers have, thus far, taken advantage of the new split
refund option. Split refunds offer taxpayers the opportunity to build assets
by, for example, sending part of their refund to one account for immediate
needs and another part to a savings or investment account for future needs.
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Deadline Approaching
to Comment on GASB’s Intangible Assets Proposal
The public comment period for the Governmental
Accounting Standards Board’s (GASB) proposed standards for
reporting
intangible assets in state and local government financial statements
will end on March 23, 2007. The proposal was published as an Exposure Draft
(ED), Accounting and Financial Reporting for Intangible Assets, on December
27, 2006. The ED describes an intangible asset as an asset that lacks
physical substance, is non-financial in nature, and has an initial useful
life extending beyond a single reporting period. It is intended to answer
questions about whether and when certain intangible assets should be
considered capital assets for financial reporting purposes.
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Keeping Your Information
Secure and Available
In today's electronic environment, small
businesses must be vigilant about their network security and protect their
sensitive data from prying eyes. A recent 2006 Symantec Corp. Internet
Security Threat Report indicates that Windows programs should be of
particular concern for small businesses because they are the most readily
used applications in the industry, and these applications are often the most
attacked by hackers. To read this
article in its entirety and learn 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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