Large Partnerships Face Major Changes to Audits and Adjustments The recently enacted federal budget deal includes major changes to how the IRS will audit large partnerships and, when adjustments result in tax underpayments, will allow the IRS to collect the tax directly from the partnership, instead of from the individual partners.  Alistair M. Nevius, Journal of Accountancy editor-in chief, discusses the n ...

Taxpayers and practitioners are still waiting for Congress to agree on a package extending all currently expired tax breaks.  Here's a look at the expired provisions and the actions that are pending to extend them.  Sally P. Schreiber, senior editor for Tax Insider, examines tax incentives for individuals, business, and energy-related provisions. To find out more on The Tax Adviser article, click: Expired T ...

The need to develop reliable, defensible fair value markets for hard-to-value assets is universal.  Sujan Rajbhandary, senior member of Mercer Capital’s Financial Reporting Valuation Group, sits down with Travis Harms to get his insight from a financial reporting perspective on a few issues around valuations of startups. To read more about the results of this report in the Mercer Capital's Financial Reporti ...

Title III is the Newest Crowdfinance Option for Private Companies On October 30, 2015, the SEC finalized the rules for securities crowdfunding under Title III of the Jumpstart Our Business Startups (JOBS) Act of 2012. Title III lets startups raise up to $1 million per year by selling securities exclusively through registered online intermediaries known as crowdfunding portals and broker-dealer offering plat ...

What Financial Advisors and Quantum Experts Should Consider in this Growing Market Neither the seller nor the buyer intends a dispute to arise as a result of a successful or failed M&A transaction. However, due to the economic importance of M&A decisions and the high purchase prices paid, contentious situations can be observed in around ten percent of all M&A transactions as studies have shown. ...

Use of Synthetic Credit Ratings to Determine the Appropriate Market Yield for the Preferred Equity Interest Among the estate tax planning methods that include grants of “carried” or profit interests, grantor retained annuity trusts, outright gifts, etc., entity freeze is a less known, or perhaps, less utilized tool. Yet, in certain circumstances, a freeze entity can be a compelling wealth transfer mechanism ...

United we Thrive, Divided we Fail: Brighten your Firm’s Future with Six Unity Strategies   Arguing and disrespect among partners can undermine a firm's effectiveness and productivity.  Here are six strategies for building a cohesive firm.  Jennifer Wilson, partner and co-founder of ConvergenceCoaching LLC, explains that when your leadership enhances partner unity, your firm’s success will go a long way ...

Automation anxieties concerning the impact of technology on the labor force go back to the Industrial Revolution.  More recent technological advancements have helped to decrease the separation between work and home life.  However, it seems unlikely technology will lead to widespread unemployment.  Irving Wladawsky-Berger, contributor to CIO Journal, discusses the angst driven by continual automation improve ...

For some businesses, the possibility for goodwill impairment is an issue.  Lucas M. Parris, senior member of Mercer Capital’s Financial Reporting Valuation Group, explains the FASB proposed changes and what the Board has been discussing for a couple years now.   To read more about the results of this report in the Mercer Capital's Financial Reporting Blog, click: New Rules for Goodwill Impairment?. Thi ...

As a Strategic Marketing Tool for Your Organization How valuable is LinkedIn for marketing your firm? Yourself? Sources project that LinkedIn will have over 500 million users by 2020. In this article, Lee Frederiksen discusses how LinkedIn can be used to market an organization. ...

Are Older Insured’s Doomed to Pay More? Why is the Cost of Insurance suddenly rising?! Is there anything that insureds can do? For decades, carriers explicitly said that COI increases were unthinkable. In this article, the author identifies the reasons given by four carriers for COI increases and looks at what some other carriers have done to mitigate COI increases. This is particularly important for older ...

The financial advisory profession is growing, but some states are better than others for adviser pay.  Dan Berman, Contributing Editor for ThinkAdvisor, looks at the best, and the worst, states when comparing the mean U.S. salary for financial advisors. To find out more on this ThinkAdvisor article, click: ThinkAdvisor (best) and ThinkAdvisor (worst). ...

Making decisions when faced with a difficult situation is not an effective estate planning strategy.  Encourage clients to plan before a stressful life change occurs.  It is important to help them set up health care proxies, consider nominating guardians or conservators, and revise estate plans when they make changes to their wills or trust.  Patricia M. Annino, from Estate Planning practice at Prince Lobel ...

Does anyone know what the future holds for markets?  Perhaps fairness options can help financial advisors seek the answers they are looking for.  Jeff K. Davis, Managing Director of Mercer Capital’s Financial Institutions Group, explores this option and some issues to consider when deciding if it should be used in a falling market.   To read more about the results of this report in the Mercer Capital's ...

R Programming and Ivy League Classes—For Free There are a host of excellent statistical and optimization software packages available to valuation analysts and litigation support consultants. They are good, but also expensive. “R” is a programming language and software environment for statistical computing and graphics. The R language is widely used among statisticians and data miners for developing statisti ...

For Current Market Conditions How can one adjust the cost of capital to reflect current market conditions? Does inclusion of the βSIZE and SPH/ERPH result in double counting? In this article, Marc Vianello answers these questions. ...

Crowdfunding has taken off providing CPAs with many chances to cultivate new business—and also carries risks for investors.  Courtney L. Vien, JofA associate editor, discusses the crowdfunding basics and what an exciting area of opportunity this may be for some CPAs. To find out more on this JofA article, click: Crowdfunding Brings New Opportunities for CPAs. ...

This article provides more than a dozen tips to help transform your computer into a lean, clean performance machine.  J. Carlton Collins, Journal of Accountancy contributing editor, provides some excellent user-friendly instructions to help get your computer running more efficiently. To find out more on this Journal of Accountancy article, click: Boost Your Computer’s Performance. ...

Two corporate finance tools available to private companies are leveraged share repurchases and leveraged dividend recapitalizations.  Z. Christopher Mercer, founder and CEO of Mercer Capital, looks at which transaction may be the right one for you or for your client. To read more about the results of this report in the Mercer Capital's Financial Reporting Blog, click: Leveraged Dividend Recapitalizations an ...

Similarities and Differences in Securities Valuation Over the past three decades, the number of both dissenting shareholder appraisal rights claims and shareholder oppression claims have increased significantly. This increase has created a demand for forensic-related business and security valuation services. Valuation analysts are not legal counsel, of course. However, valuation analysts who practice in thi ...