Journal of Accountancy articles from December 2005

Journal of Accountancy archives from December 2005

The IRA Trust.(Individual retirement accounts)
December 1, 2005... Many CPAs find that clients have accumulated considerable retirement assets. One tax-effective way to provide for a method of passing these assets on to grandchildren is to use an "IRA Trust." This is a dedicated trust used to receive assets...

Economic indicators to watch and why: here's a primer on the most common and vital economic indicators. Use it to advise clients on the health of the economy and the strength of their investments.
December 1, 2005... [] Gross Domestic Product (GDP). A way to gauge an economy's health, GDP represents the market value of all goods and services produced in a nation during a specific period. The Federal Reserve uses such information to adjust monetary policy,...

Working couples: small firm solutions: six husband-and-wife partners share their secrets of success.
December 1, 2005... EXECUTIVE SUMMARY * MARRIED-COUPLE CPA FIRMS ARE FINDING SUCCESS on their own terms and learning valuable practice management lessons along the way. * EACH INDIVIDUAL SHOULD HAVE AN INDEPENDENT practice area. Having autonomy over final...

Up close and personal: Landers & Landers AC Huntington, WV 25701.(certified public accountants John Landers and wife Cassie Landers)(Interview)
December 1, 2005... Landers & Landers AC's president and managing officer John T. Landers, CPA, and his CPA wife Cassie, founded their six-person, three-CPA Huntington, W. Va., firm in 1975. The firm has strong niches serving small contractors and closely held...

Feng shui for beginners: an organized, harmonious work environment is a business asset.
December 1, 2005... EXECUTIVE SUMMARY * MANY CPA FIRM STAFF MEMBERS AND SOLE practitioners as well as chief executives use home offices in their professional work. CPAs can apply some principles of feng shui--which uses placement design to achieve harmony,...

SoHo issues for small firm CPAs: big company techniques for handling small company growing pains.(certified public accountants)(Panel Discussion)
December 1, 2005... Executive Roundtable: How long has your organization been serving CPAs and small businesses, particularly those working in the small office/home office (SOHO) environment? (CINDY BATES, MICROSOFT) Small businesses and the CPA community...

How to "excel" at options valuation: build a flexible, spreadsheet-based lattice model for better calculations.
December 1, 2005... The guidance from FASB is clear: Companies must determine and report the fair value of stock options they use to compensate employees. But because employee stock options can't be traded publicly, their fair value is not readily available and...

To consolidate or not: for some companies, that is the question.
December 1, 2005... EXECUTIVE SUMMARY * AMONG ENRON'S PROBLEMS WAS ITS USE of variable interest entities, which allowed it to leave significant amounts of debt off its balance sheet. In response to concern about this practice, FASB issued interpretation no....

Get back on track: an IRS program helps correct retirement plan defects so tax benefits are not lost.
December 1, 2005... EXECUTIVE SUMMARY * QUALIFIED RETIREMENT PLANS THAT HAVE NOT BEEN properly updated or have not been operating according to plan provisions may be disqualified and, as a result, lose important tax benefits. * THE IRS's EMPLOYEE PLANS...

Creative capital gains.
December 1, 2005... Because capital gains have so many benefits over ordinary income, taxpayers often invent creative methods to generate them. To recognize capital gains, however, the taxpayer must be able to prove the sale or exchange of a capital asset. ...

Unallocated support payments as alimony.
December 1, 2005... The requirements that determine whether payments between ex-spouses qualify as alimony were discussed in a tax case in the November issue of the JofA ("What Makes It Alimony?" page 95) If payments are to qualify as alimony, the payor spouse...

Starting in 2006: Roth 401(k)s: another way to save for retirement.(The Tax Adviser)
December 1, 2005... The Economic Growth and Tax Relief Reconciliation Act of 2001 (EGTRRA) (section 617) added a provision allowing IRC section 401(k) plan participants to designate part or all of their plan contributions as Roth 401 (k) contributions. IRC section...

Many Unhappy Returns: One Man's Quest to Turn Around the Most Unpopular Organization in America.(Book Review)
December 1, 2005... Many Unhappy Returns: One Man's Quest to Turn Around the Most Unpopular Organization in America By Charles O. Rossetti 340 pages; hardcover; $26.95 Harvard Business School Press, Boston, 2005 What could be a better challenge for a...

The last word.(service to the community)
December 1, 2005... Hurricane Katrina changed my life. My wife Edie is from New Orleans, so like most of us here in Baton Rouge, we have family members who've moved in semipermanently. It's almost akin to the stories my Daddy tells about the Depression, how family...