Journal of Accountancy articles from April 2006

Journal of Accountancy archives from April 2006

Employee benefits news you can use: here are some of the more important developments CPAs need to make their clients and employers aware of for 2006.(certified public accountants)
April 1, 2006... [] Executive compensation rules under IRC section 409A. The American Jobs Creation Act's new IRC section 409A makes sweeping changes to the tax rules governing nonqualified deferred compensation arrangements such as executive retirement,...

Too much of a good thing: how to manage the pitfalls of company stock in 401(k)plans.
April 1, 2006... EXECUTIVE SUMMARY * Companies that allow employees to invest their 401(k) accounts in company stock face a serious risk if the stock declines precipitously. Faced with large losses, employees can take legal action to recover their...

Best practices in EBP audits: regulatory pressure is heating up the market.(employee benefit plans)
April 1, 2006... EXECUTIVE SUMMARY * The Department of Labor requires employee benefit plan (EBP) audits for employers with more than 100 eligible plan participants and some smaller plans. EBPs include defined-benefit, defined-contribution, 401(k) and...

Start your own practice: shape your own destiny and provide value to clients.
April 1, 2006... EXECUTIVE SUMMARY * A decade of declining enrollment in college accounting programs during the 1990s combined with passage of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act in 2002 and the new financial reporting and internal control demands on publicly traded...

Managing meetings: the budget line for meetings is rife with opportunities and risks.
April 1, 2006... EXECUTIVE SUMMARY * Every good meeting has three elements: an agenda, a site that's conducive to the meeting objectives and a contract that guarantees you get what you need on the budget you expect. * If you are planning many meetings...

What's in IT for you (and your company)? Show off your ROI skills by sizing up your company's IT spending.(information technology, return on investment)
April 1, 2006... EXECUTIVE SUMMARY * The difficulty of calculating the return on an IT investment often has weakened the case for funding such initiatives. * Financial managers and other decision makers expect requests for IT funding to be framed in an...

Home sweet home: ascertaining the tax basis of a personal residence.
April 1, 2006... EXECUTIVE SUMMARY * As home prices escalate and the IRC gain exclusion remains stationary, the potential for taxable gains looms ever larger. It's important to know the tax basis in your home and keep accurate records. * The initial...

Restrictions on the right of offset.
April 1, 2006... Most businesses assume they can apply the right of offset to net a receivable and payable. Recently the Federal Circuit Court of Appeals limited the government's right of offset. Although Pacific Gas and Electric (PG&E) filed its 1982 tax...

Can estate reduce IRAs' value for tax purposes?(individual retirement accounts)
April 1, 2006... A gross estate includes the fair market value of all of the decedent's property IRAs are part of the gross estate, but beneficiaries of inherited IRAs do not report taxable income until after they receive distributions. The tax code classifies...

Dividends-received deduction from portfolio stock.(OBH, Inc. v. United States)
April 1, 2006... One of Congress's goals is preventing taxpayers from taking undue advantage of the tax rules. To that end it passed IRC section 246A, which prevents corporations from claiming a dividends-received deduction against dividends from stock...

AMT for individuals: some planning for individual taxpayers.(alternative minimum tax)(from The Tax Adviser)
April 1, 2006... Since 1969 the Internal Revenue Code has included an alternative minimum tax (AMT), originally designed to prevent wealthy taxpayers from claiming so many deductions that they wound up paying little or no taxes. Under the AMT, taxpayers...

Directory of AICPA selected services.(Directory)
April 1, 2006... Address and employment information can be changed online through www.aicpa.org/about/dues.htm. Or, members can e-mail, mail or fax the information to the Member Service Center in New Jersey (see Member Service Center for additional services...