Art brings with him significant tax technology experience. Art spent the last two years in the industry overseeing the tax technology needs for a Fortune 500 company. Prior to gaining industry experience, he worked at CORPTAX for morethan 10 years. He earned an outstanding reputation for quality client service, as well as building an extensive network of client users

US state and local government tax revenues, which have been badly hit by the financial crisis and ensuing economic slowdown, recorded positive growth in the fourth quarter of 2009 for the first time in five quarters.

Collaboration trends are changing the way people work together. Social tools are essential to the daily lives of many people. The proliferation of social software demonstrates that users find value in this new generation of tools. The adoption of SharePoint in the business community continues to grow. SharePoint provides a wide variety of functionality in a single platform, and the 2010 version integrates the portal, content management, collaboration, search, forms and reporting workloads that organizations have come to expect with the social computing features that users demand.

Efforts to harmonize international and US accounting rules should be kept under “close review”, according to a senior member of the UK’s largest accounting body. Questions remain about the International Accounting Standards Board’s convergence strategy, according to Dr Nigel Sleigh-Johnson, head of financial reporting at the ICAEW..

For those waiting on the status of the SEC's IFRS roadmap, last week brought big news. Speaking at two separate gatherings, SEC chief accountant James Kroeker said the roadmap would be an important priority this fall. Chairwoman Mary Schapiro, speaking to a group at Georgetown University McDonough School of Business, said it would be ideal to have a single set of high-quality global accounting standards and we should hear something later this fall about the Commission's expectations with respect to IFRS.

Conversion to IFRS will be far more than a technical accounting exercise. Implementing IFRS will impact many, if not all, aspects of your business operations, including information technology. It may bring companywide changes that will spawn new risks. These include system changes, modifications to processes impacting employees’ day-to-day duties, and new accounting policies.

As the result of fallout from the ongoing economic crisis, failures associated with existing risk management processes are already generating calls for reform and increased regulatory scrutiny.

The economic substance doctrine used by US Courts to determine whether a transaction is structured with the sole intent of avoiding tax will be codified under plans to raise money to pay for President Obama’s healthcare reforms.

The Internal Accounting Standards Board (IASB) issued amendments to IFRS 1 First-time Adoption of Internal Financial Reporting Standards. The amendments address the retrospective application of IFRSs to particular situations and are aimed at ensuring that entities applying IFRSs will not face undue cost or effort in the transition process.

During the past several years, the move toward a single set of high quality, globally accepted accounting standards has gained momentum. For example, in 2005 the European Union began requiring companies incorporated in its member states whose securities are listed on an EU-regulated stock exchange to prepare their consolidated financial statements in accordance with International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS)..”

The 2009 ACT Annual Conference will be held June 22-24, 2009 at the Disney's Contemporary Resort, Orlando, FL. Please join ACT and participate in an excellent program that will feature assorted presentations. Additional information will be available shortly on the ACT Site.

The International Accounting Standards Board (IASB) today published for public comment an exposure draft of a proposed new standard on the accounting for income tax. If adopted, the standard would replace the existing requirements in IAS 12 Income Taxes.

In today's economic climate, companies and accounting firms that give opinions on their clients' financial statements are sure to face new and significant challenges.

As the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission moves toward adoption of international accounting standards in place of U.S. generally accepted accounting principles now used by some 11,000 publicly traded companies, a growing majority of U.S. CPAs understand they need to begin to prepare for the switch.

The Tax & Accounting business of Thomson Reuters has announced the integration of its leading software and service brands for corporate tax professionals under one common name -- ONESOURCE™. The announcement was made October 22, 2008 at the Thomson Reuters 2008 Corporate & Trust User Conference.

In October 2008, the IASB and the FASB published a Discussion Paper on Financial Statement Presentation (news release). FASB member Thomas Linsmeier said in a recent conference, “This particular project will change the face of financial statements in a very, very significant way.” The Discussion Paper is open for comment until April 14, 2009.

The world’s six largest accounting firms are pushing for the adoption of International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS).

The next generation of tax compliance, provision and planning applications from CORPTAX all deliver the in-depth functionality that clients expect, plus a new, intuitive interface that provides the ease-of-use and the look and feel of standard Microsoft® applications.

In June, 2006 the Financial Accounting Standards Board issued Interpretation 48 of Financial Accounting Standard 109. This interpretation, known as “FIN 48”, is intended to eliminate inconsistency in accounting for uncertain tax positions in financial statements certified in accordance with U.S. GAAP. FIN 48 mandates new rules for recognition, de-recognition, measurement, and disclosure of all tax positions.

The Internal Revenue Service has issued for public comment draft versions of the revised Form 1120-F, U.S. Income Tax Return of a Foreign Corporation, for tax year 2007 and related schedules, including Schedule M-3, new for 2007. Taxpayers with $10 million or more in total reportable assets filing Form 1120-F for tax years ending on or after Dec. 31, 2007 will be required to file Schedule M-3