Outlook articles from January 2000

Outlook archives from January 2000

Industry CPAs Take On the New Millennium.
January 1, 2000... Lucrative for those with a good idea, a willingness to follow sound business advice, and tons of elbow grease, the 1990s has been a time of fabulous wealth building for those savvy enough to tap into the charging bull market. It's been a...

Proposed New Direction for Compilations.(Brief Article)
January 1, 2000... The AICPA's Accounting and Review Services Committee (ARSC) is poised to take a dramatic departure from existing standards regarding unaudited financial statements for nonpublic companies. All California CPAs and their clients will be...

International Taxation of E-commerce.(Brief Article)
January 1, 2000... Although e-commerce is relatively new, existing telecommunications and software licensing tax rules may resolve many of the cross-border e-commerce tax conundrums. While this column reflects the perspective of U.S. companies selling or...

ACCOUNTING for START UPS WHAT CFOS NEED TO KNOW.(Brief Article)
January 1, 2000... Are You Ready to Catch 'dot.com' Fever? THEY'RE POPPING UP all over, like wildflowers after spring rains: crop after crop of startups, winning the hearts and wallets of venture capitalists, taking NASDAQ by storm, and making instant...

FROM GENERATION X TO GENERATION EQUITY.(Brief Article)
January 1, 2000... What CPAs Need to Know about Advising and Attracting Younger Clients WHEN THE Generation X media hype was in full swing, writers described this group as a bunch of slackers who drank too much espresso, watched too much MTV and worked at...

Is It Finally Time to Switch to Electronic Filing?(Brief Article)
January 1, 2000... Could it be that what is best for the IRS is best for us and our clients? In the past, I have written that electronic tax filing was not ready for "prime time," and wasn't cost-effective for tax professionals. Since then, the process has...

Ethics Under Stress.(Brief Article)
January 1, 2000... THE "MANAGED EARNINGS" PRESSURE COOKER WHEN A FORMER student dropped by John Lacey's office at Cal State Long Beach a few years back, it wasn't that unusual. Their conversation, however, quickly veered from the ordinary. The...

Avoiding the Perils of S Corporation Elections.(Brief Article)
January 1, 2000... Playing by the rules can mean the difference between "S" and "C" IN THE EARLY '90s, S Corporation elections were on a downward trend. In 1996, however, President Clinton signed the Small Business Job Protection Act which, among other...

ARE YOU IN BALANCE?(Brief Article)
January 1, 2000... Taking stock of your organization's intangible assets EMPLOYEE performance reviews generally rank fairly low on the list of duties managers consider important and strategic. Often performed solely because it is required by top management,...

IFAC Releases Technical Handbook.(Brief Article)
January 1, 2000... The latest international standards and guidance for accountants are out in the newly-released handbook from the International Federation of Accountants: The Handbook of Technical Pronouncements. The handbook, released in July, includes...

Seven-Year Recovery Period No Longer Standard.(Brief Article)
January 1, 2000... The recovery period for personal property used in rental real estate should be five years, not seven years (as was previously the understanding in the profession). For returns that have already been filed, taxpayers may continue to use a...

New Database Tracks POA Documents.(Brief Article)
January 1, 2000... While the IRS has offered an automated power of attorney form system Central Authorization File (CAF) for several years, the Franchise Tax Board's process for handling POA documents has always been entirely manual, with no method for tracking...

FIRPTA Hazards.(Brief Article)
January 1, 2000... Your client, a real estate broker, has a problem: A customer just sold a California investment property, and because the customer is a nonresident alien, the IRS and Franchise Tax Board (FTB) are withholding taxes on the sales price. To...

The California CPA and Professional Standards.(Brief Article)
January 1, 2000... A question I am sometimes asked is: "How do the California Accountancy Act (CAA) and the California Board of Accountancy (CBA) regulations relate to the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants' (AICPA) professional standards and...

Excelling at Excel.(Review)
January 1, 2000... Author and CPA Stephen L. Nelson's newest release is The MBA'S Guide to Microsoft Excel 2000: The Essential Excel Reference for Business Pro frofessionals. Nelson is no stranger to the "how to" book business; he also wrote Quicken 2000 for...

Navision Also Eases Excel Pain.(Brief Article)
January 1, 2000... Navision Software, a Denmark-based company specializing in business applications compatible with Microsoft Windows systems, has released a new financial reporting and analysis software package to be used along with the popular Excel...