Accounting and Financial News Stories

The future of automation and accounting
Accounting Today
Automation is transforming the accounting profession. My experience proves it. Over the past five years, I’ve gone from working as a low-paid hourly bookkeeper to billing fixed fees as high-value virtual controller — and one who does almost no data entry, by the way. We’re quickly approaching an era of “no-code accounting” — truly zero data entry. But that’s not all automation will do for us in the future.

Why It May Pay Off to Double Up Tax Deductions This Year
Wall Street Journal
Taxpayers worried about the potential loss of tax savings from itemized deductions from tax reform next year may want to consider doubling up this year. In a double-up strategy, a taxpayer–single or married–would combine (that is, double up) itemized deductions in the same year and then take the standard deduction in the adjacent year. My wife and I have used this tax-saving strategy for more than a decade. And based on proposed tax reforms, some taxpayers could benefit from the strategy this year.

Coinbase’s Motion To Oppose IRS Investigation May Not Succeed
Live Bitcoin News
It is important to understand the IRS does not need a clear cause for potential tax evasion investigation. As soon as they suspect something could be amiss, they can go through the legal system and file a request for more information. In this day and age, the IRS can examine any information that could be relevant to their investigation, even if it turns out their suspicions were unwarranted. Rest assured the Coinbase user base is not too happy about this investigation, as they feel the government is invading their privacy when it comes to Bitcoin transactions.

JPMorgan Draws IRS Whistle-Blower Complaint Over Pension Funds
Bloomberg
JPMorgan Chase & Co. paid more than $300 million a year ago to resolve regulators’ claims that the bank had failed to tell wealthy clients it was steering them into its own funds. Now it may have unfinished business with the Internal Revenue Service. The bank, in its settlement with securities and commodities regulators, admitted to the disclosure lapses, which it said were unintentional, and promised to be more transparent. A whistle-blower now claims that JPMorgan’s misdeeds went beyond a failure to disclose.

Things to come? Digging deep into the Trump and House GOP tax proposals
Accounting Today
As of Jan. 20, 2017, the Republican Party will control both houses of Congress as well as the presidency, putting it in a prime position to enact its tax agenda -- but first it will need to decide which one it want to enact. On November 9, the day after the election, House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Kevin Brady, R-Texas, and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Kentucky, indicated that they want to take up tax reform early in the next session of Congress. Here we present some of the recent tax proposals from both President-elect Donald Trump and House Republicans.

Financial Shares Help Steady Dow
Wall Street Journal
U.S. stocks bounced back after the Federal Reserve rattled major indexes a day earlier when it signaled a quicker pace of interest-rate increases. The dollar strengthened, while bonds and gold tumbled. Investors had widely anticipated the Fed’s decision to raise rates for the first time this year, but the central bank also hinted Wednesday that it expected rates to rise at a faster pace than previously projected.

Private Client Services 2016 Year-End Advisory
JD Supra Business Advisor
As the year draws to a close, we have entered a period of great uncertainty in estate and tax planning. President-elect Donald Trump has identified tax reform as a priority of his new administration and, with Republican control of Congress, many commentators believe we are poised for drastic changes to the transfer tax regime.