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Individual partners of partnerships and individual shareholders of S corporations can now open IRS business tax accounts, which previously were available only to sole proprietors, the IRS said Monday in launching the second phase of a new online self-service tool for businesses.

The business world is undergoing a profound transformation that extends far beyond traditional financial statements and profit margins. The pace of societal change and environmental impacts has elevated the focus around the impact of business activities on the environment and society. Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) considerations have often become embedded into the enterprise risk management process, influencing investment decisions, shaping corporate reputations, and impacting regulatory requirements.

As we near the end of 2023, many leaders and employees are asking the same question: What will the workplace look like in 2024?

So, let's assume we've somehow, someway, all come to agreement on what AI is (see previous story) and is not (see previous story). Not sure how we managed to actually accomplish that, but we did, at least in this thought experiment. So we've operationalized all our variables and we can finally say we understand the fundamentals of AI.

Why is retaining talent consistently ranked as one of the greatest management challenges impacting the accounting and finance profession? What really drives the profession's perpetually higher-than-average turnover rates? The 2023 Illinois Society of CPAs Insight Special Feature, "Righting Retention," aims to answer those questions and more.

With 2024 here, finding and keeping talent remains a top priority for many business leaders. That's largely due to lasting impacts on the professional landscape over the past few years: many employees are continuing to reevaluate their priorities and values, emerging Gen Z workers are making business owners evaluate benefits and recruitment strategies, and mass resignations and a highly competitive talent marketplace have created both challenges and opportunities for employers.

In a letter addressed to members of the House Financial Services Committee and Senate Banking Committee, the AICPA and all 54 state CPA societies, including the Connecticut Society of CPAs asked that H.R. 4035 and S. 2623, the Protecting Small Business Information Act of 2023, or similar legislation to delay, be included in any year-end legislative package. The bills would delay the Beneficial Ownership Information (BOI) reporting requirement until all three rules under the Corporate Transparency Act have been finalized to specify that all such rules would take effect on the same date.

The Internal Revenue Service today issued the 2024 optional standard mileage rates used to calculate the deductible costs of operating an automobile for business, charitable, medical or moving purposes.

As accounting firms are increasingly targeted with cyberattacks, cybersecurity has become essential for every professional. Between data breaches, phishing attacks and malware, criminals are going after the sensitive financial data held by accountants. Modern accountants, then, must take their cyber defenses seriously for the sake of themselves and their clients.

Last year saw a significant amount of disputes around earn-out agreements and working capital adjustments during M&A transactions, according to new research.

Effective Jan. 1, 2024, an employee’s receipt of severance pay will now result in disqualification from receiving unemployment compensation benefits for the period of time covered by the payment.

Following a partly sunny summer forecast for the U.S. economy, the outlook among CPA decision-makers again clouded in the latest quarterly survey released Thursday by AICPA & CIMA, together as the Association of International Certified Professional Accountants.

As part of continuing efforts to combat dubious Employee Retention Credit (ERC) claims, the Internal Revenue Service is sending an initial round of more than 20,000 letters to taxpayers notifying them of disallowed ERC claims. IRS is disallowing claims to entities that did not exist or did not have paid employees during the period of eligibility to prevent improper ERC payments from being made to ineligible entities.

Would you rather have 100 small clients or 10 big ones? An Any Answers post grappled with this debate as accountants discussed balancing stability and diversification against the potential for deeper partnerships and higher revenue.

Since March, when the weekly Vendor Spotlight feature first launched, we have showcased 34 accounting solutions providers of all shapes and sizes — a wide variety of companies that, despite their differences, all focus on providing the tools that have become a necessity for any professional looking to guide their clients through the slings and arrows of this outrageous modern economy.

Treasury's Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) issued a final rule (RIN 1506-AB62) Wednesday extending the deadline for companies created or registered in 2024 to file initial beneficial ownership information (BOI) reports to 90 calendar days from the original 30 calendar days.

The use of employee stock ownership plans as a tool to transition ownership has a number of attractive benefits that may well be overlooked by accounting firms.

The accounting profession is suffering from serious talent shortages, caused by both a slowing pipeline of entry-level accountants and the ongoing leakage of experienced professionals to other industries or to retirement. And yet firms remain slow to grasp the value of diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives for tapping new sources of talent and boosting retention rates.

Human resources (HR) analytics offers the opportunity to evaluate HR strategies using quantifiable metrics. Also referred to as people analytics or workforce analytics, HR analytics collects and examines data to help assess the performance of the human resources functions within a company.

Good pay, global job opportunities, and job security topped the list of reasons, according to a ShareFile survey of accountants.