Broker-dealers registered with the Securities and Exchange Commission, with some limited exceptions, are required to be members of Securities Investor Protection Corporation. Before Apr. 1, 2009, the SIPC member assessment was a flat rate of $150 per year. Beginning on that date, SIPC reinstituted an assessment rate of one-quarter of 1% of a member's SIPC net operating revenue,...

The AICPA Minority Initiatives Committee is celebrating its 40th anniversary in several ways, including releasing a free e-book showcasing accomplished CPAs, hosting a leadership workshop and receiving an award for excellence. By communicating these successes, the MIC hopes to increase diversity in the profession and promote the CPA credential to young minority students....

Users of the FASB Accounting Standards Codification[TM] will now find it easier to access certain information about eXtensible Business Reporting Language (XBRL) elements of the U.S. Financial Reporting Taxonomy that link to the codification. The Financial Accounting Standards Board said that a new XBRL functionality at the FASB Accounting Standards Codification[TM] Web site...

In Mar. 2009, in conjunction with their joint project on leases, the Financial Accounting Standards Board and the International Accounting Standards Board both issued discussion papers titled "Leases: Preliminary Views." Comments on the documents were due in July and the boards are currently considering the feedback. Because of the project's scope and importance, the AICPA has...

The Court of Federal Claims held that, for purposes of interest netting under Sec. 6621(d), a taxpayer was the same taxpayer if it had the same identification number in the underpayment and overpayment years. Therefore, a corporation that had an underpayment before it became part of a consolidated group could net the interest on the underpayment against interest on an overpayment...

The Tax Court held that an estate could deduct as an administration expense interest incurred when a trust that was part of the estate borrowed funds to enable the estate to pay its federal estate tax.

Background

Walter Duncan's will divided his oil and gas business among his sons Vincent, Raymond, and Walter Jr., with each brother receiving his share of the business in...

A BUY/SELL agreement is a contract that restricts business owners from freely transferring their ownership interests in the business. Such agreements are a tool in providing for a planned and orderly transfer of a business interest. Some of the more important advantages of a buy/sell agreement are to:

1. Provide for business continuity upon the death, disability, or retirement...

Due to the economic climate over the past three years, many individuals have experienced difficulty in obtaining a loan for a new home or refinancing a present home. Unemployment or reduced earnings, foreclosures, and even bankruptcy, combined with stricter lending policies, have left many individuals unable to qualify for traditional lending. An alternative for many individuals is to...

The AiCPA's Tax Executive Committee bestowed the 2011 Arthur J. Dixon Memorial Award on Jay Starkman. David Lifson, a former chair of the committee and previous Dixon award recipient, presented the award at a luncheon in Washington, DC, on November 9.

Starkman is a widely recognized expert on tax simplification and the history of U.S. taxes. His book, The Sex of a...

WORKER CLASSIFICATION ISSUES BECOME a major tax administration focus in our nation's capital over the past few months. First, on September 21,2011, the IRS issued Announcement 2011-64 establishing a new voluntary classification settlement program (VCSP) "that provides partial relief from federal employment taxes for eligible taxpayers that agree to prospectively treat workers as...

This article focuses primarily on the Circular 230( 1 ) tax preparer penalties and other sanctions as well as the regulations governing practice before the IRS that were revised by T.D. 9527 effective August 2, 2011. Circular 230 prescribes who may practice before the IRS. Previously, Circular 230 covered practitioners such as attorneys, certified public accountants,...

The Justice Department sues another man and his accounting firm to stop him from preparing tax returns. (1) This headline and similar IRS press releases are becoming more frequent. One of the most common reasons for such enforcement measures is earned income tax credit (EITC) due-diligence noncompliance by return preparers.The IRS considers tax professionals essential partners in...

Tax-exempt entities may establish as many as three types of tax-favored retirement plans. They may, of course, establish qualified retirement plans. They may also establish Sec. 403(b) plans, generally known as tax-sheltered annuities. The tax law treats distributions from qualified plans and tax-sheltered annuities similarly, a treatment generally familiar to tax practitioners.

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The IRS issued proposed regulations (REG-111283-11) clarifying when swap contracts and certain similar agreements will be subject to mark-to-market accounting and the other rules of Sec. 1256. The proposed regulations attempt to eliminate some of the uncertainty on this point that was created by the enactment of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act of 2010,...

The treatment of success-based fees and, in particular, the type and extent of documentation required to establish that a portion of a success-based fee is allocable to activities that do not facilitate the transaction, has been a subject of much controversy between the IRS and taxpayers.

Success-based fees are amounts that are contingent on the successful closing of a...

The IRS issued guidance (Rev. Proc. 2011-46) providing a book safe-harbor accounting method for taxpayers that use the nonaccrual-experience (NAE) accounting method under Sec. 448(d) (5) and Regs. Sec. 1.448-2. The revenue procedure also contains procedures for obtaining automatic consent to change to the NAE book safe-harbor method and to make certain changes within the NAE book...

In Letter Ruling 201137004, the IRS ruled that income a real estate investment trust (REIT) receives from an interest-rate swap agreement that hedges indebtedness of the REIT's lower-tier partnership is not includible in the REIT's gross income for purposes of applying the 95% and 75% gross income tests of Secs. 856(c)(2) and (3).

Facts

The taxpayer is a...

In Letter Ruling 201139005, the IRS ruled that, after a restructuring transaction, an eligible independent contractor will continue to be treated as managing and operating a hotel on behalf of a taxable real estate investment trust (REIT) subsidiary for purposes of Sec. 856(d)(8) (B). As such, the taxable REIT subsidiary (TRS) will not be treated as operating or managing a...