Finance & Accounting

Lawmakers are still divided along partisan lines about how — or whether — to proceed with another round of economic stimulus before the year’s end, but one issue has the backing of most Senators: tax cuts for beer, wine and liquor. A bipartisan group of 57 senators sent a letter to Senate leadership Tuesday asking

Businesses not only have to file their income tax returns, but also various information returns. The failure to file these other returns can result in costly penalties. Here are some forms you’ll need to file in 2021 to report payments in 2020. W-2 Filing Tips for 2020 Start preparing now so you can timely submit

On election night, Democratic campaign consultants may have been wondering, “Where did all these voters come from?” But unless the next Congress sets a legislative course over the next few months, Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi may soon be wondering, “Where did all the voters go?” The incoming Biden administration will need to navigate

Intuit Inc., the software company behind TurboTax, won U.S. antitrust approval for its $7.1 billion takeover of personal finance website Credit Karma Inc. The Justice Department said Wednesday it was clearing the deal after Credit Karma agreed to sell its tax business to Square Inc. for $50 million to resolve government concerns over competition in

The American Institute of CPAs is firing back after a congressional hearing Friday featuring Internal Revenue Service commissioner Charles Rettig in which he took issue with a recent letter from the AICPA on the subject of penalty relief for taxpayers dealing with the novel coronavirus pandemic. During a House Ways and Means Oversight Subcommittee hearing,

As of mid-October 2020, the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) has approved 3,612,236 Economic Injury Disaster Loans (EIDL) totaling $191,994,805,796. Those numbers likely will rise as the application deadline for EIDL loans is not until December. If you’ve already applied, there is no need to reapply as applications are processed on a first-come, first-serve basis.

Drug money; Phoenix descending; stepping down; and other highlights of recent tax cases. Las Vegas, New Mexico: Preparer Carlos Perea, 44, has pleaded guilty to two counts of aiding and abetting the preparation of false income tax returns. Perea owned and operated Perea Fast Tax, where he prepared income tax returns for clients and filed

Clairmont, Paciello and Co. PC, a midsized accounting and financial services firm in King of Prussia, Pennsylvania, has acquired the tax and accounting practice of Dreslin and Co. Inc., of East Norriton, Pennsylvania, effective Nov. 1, 2020. Clairmont, Paciello has five partners, 13 full-time associates and six part-time associates. Dreslin is adding one partner and

The Governmental Accounting Standards Board is giving state and local governments extra time to implement its new leases standard because of the coronavirus pandemic, and they will probably need it because it has some complexities similar to those that businesses have been facing in applying the Financial Accounting Standards Board’s leases standard. For fiscal years

The coronavirus pandemic hit the National Association of State Boards of Accountancy toward the end of its fiscal year, but the organization is fully back to its mission, according to its recently released annual report. Like many organizations, in March and April, NASBA found itself having to navigate the new remote-work environment, while also watching

The International Public Sector Accounting Standards Board has deferred the effective dates of several of its upcoming standards and amendments to give government accountants around the world an extra year to implement them during the COVID-19 pandemic. On Friday, the IPSASB released a final pronouncement, COVID-19: Deferral of Effective Dates, postponing the effective dates of

Financial Accounting Standards Board Chairman Richard Jones had to deal with the coronavirus pandemic just as he was starting the transition with immediate past chair Russell Golden, and now he is facing the uncertainty of the presidential election and what Congress might do with accounting standards. “I actually got to join in March and I

The agreement between Camico and CPA Mutual to transfer the Accountants Professional Liability Insurance Program from CPA Mutual to Camico represents the collaboration of two mutual insurance companies, both founded by CPAs, to provide customized liability insurance to CPAs. “Camico is taking over CPA Mutual’s future business, and CPA Mutual will stay in business to

Spreading the theft around; re-routed refunds; AIG loses, mostly; and other highlights of recent tax cases. Beaverton, Oregon: Engineer Jeffrey Fitch has been sentenced to a year and a day in prison for failing to collect or pay over federal employment taxes. Since 2002, Fitch owned and operated SFA Engineering and SFA Design Group. Between

Income ranges for eligibility to make deductible contributions to traditional IRAs, to contribute to Roth IRAs and to claim the Saver’s Credit will all increase for 2021, according to the Internal Revenue Service. For single taxpayers covered by a workplace retirement plan, the range is $66,000 to $76,000, up from $65,000 to $75,000. For married

Score an awesome deal on the world’s leading accounting program. October 25, 2020 2 min read Disclosure: Our goal is to feature products and services that we think you’ll find interesting and useful. If you purchase them, Entrepreneur may get a small share of the revenue from the sale from our commerce partners. If you

A comprehensive examination across many sectors reveals institutional barriers and outright racist abuse. How do we end the cycle? Arizent’s new documentary podcast features more than two dozen professionals. In this trailer episode, you’ll hear from the following guests in order of appearance: To hear more, subscribe to Access Denied on Spotify, Apple — or

Wagering and taxes; taming email; to NEC or not; and other highlights from our favorite tax bloggers. Illegal money Avalara (https://www.avalara.com/us/en/blog.html): Favorite opening of the week: “Words matter. If they didn’t, lawmakers wouldn’t bother changing them, as the Vermont Legislature did recently” with a tiny “any” to a tiny “the” in regard to tax on

Accountants and tax professionals have been helping their small business clients deal with the economic fallout from the COVID-19 pandemic, shifting away from their routine compliance work after the end of the prolonged tax season. “We’ve been helping our customers for quite a few years make a transition from being purely compliance focused to being

For the first time, the IRS is adding barcode technology to notices sent to millions of taxpayers. Starting this month, CP14 and CP14 IA balance-due notices that inform taxpayers that they owe money on unpaid taxes and their payment options are now equipped with QR barcodes to help those taxpayers securely and easily navigate IRS.gov.

Donald Trump received $21 million in “highly unusual” payments from a Nevada hotel in 2016 as his presidential campaign was struggling for cash, the New York Times reported. Tax records recently obtained by the newspaper show a series of transactions that flowed to the president from a hotel he owns in Las Vegas with casino

Lost Horizon; crimes of Misdemeanor; Strachans plea; and other highlights of recent tax cases. Shoreview, Minnesota: Preparer Olufemi Augustine Badejo has been found guilty of four felony counts of filing a false income tax return, four felony counts of knowingly preparing returns that were fraudulent or false, and one felony count of filing a false

October 7, 2020 4 min read Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own. According to the 2019 Onpay Small Business Finance and HR Report, just 30 percent of small business owners work with accountants. That’s not surprising, given how much each dollar counts to a small company. Doing the accounting yourself certainly saves some

October 6, 2020 6 min read Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own. The following excerpt is from Money-Smart Solopreneur: A Personal Finance System for Freelancers, Entrepreneurs, and Side-Hustlers, out now via Entrepreneur Press. Purchase from Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Bookshop | IndieBound.  Good record keeping is just good business. How you manage data, account for financial transactions and store and retrieve your records is

Seattle-based tax compliance software provider Avalara has acquired Transaction Tax Resources, Inc., a tax content provider with a high-powered customer list, for approximately $377 million in cash Monday. TTR, headquartered in McMinnville, Oregon, offers information on U.S. sales and use tax rates, laws, software, and customer support to some of the largest and most complex

The American Institute of CPAs’ Auditing Standards Board issued an attestation standard for when auditors perform examination engagements with clients. The AICPA’s Standards for Attestation Engagements (SSAE) No. 21 adds a new section to the AICPA Professional Standards, designated as AT-C section 206, Direct Examination Engagements. SSAE No. 21 allows practitioners to offer an opinion,

Filing your income tax return may not be the end of the tax story for the year. You may revisit taxes for the year by means of an amended return. Due to various law changes resulting from the pandemic, there are several refund opportunities you may qualify for and obtain a tax refund if you

Intuit has created a software integration between its QuickBooks Online and Amazon Business. Small businesses using both platforms can now automate purchase reconciliation and categorization when making purchases on Amazon Business.Through the new integration, all Amazon Business purchases will be automatically imported into QBO, with data being refreshed multiple times per day. Purchase details, including

If you’re like many entrepreneurs, you likely used your own finances to start your business and didn’t bother to open a separate bank account. However, whether you started your business as a side hustle, wanted to test out a business idea, or are working as an independent contractor, mixing business and personal finances is never

Lawyers for Donald Trump were met with skepticism from federal appeals court judges as they made their latest attempt to block New York prosecutors from getting their hands on his tax filings and other financial documents through a grand jury subpoena. “Are you asking us to change the way grand juries have done their work