While social media is a relatively new set of tools, one of the problems it can produce is a pretty old one. And that is the failure of organizations to establish rules that enable a business to have a consistent voice in the market. And the fact that firms are not training their employees in the use of social media should ensure that this old problem affects new tools as well as old ones.

              

The final story awaits the conclusion of this tax season. But the developments over the last two years point to rougher times ahead for independent tax preparers. These are the businesses that are not part of a tax chain or a CPA firm.

              

Back in the days of green eye shades and manual accounting, the process known as Engagement and Trial Balance were essential to the practice of both audits and accounting. Trial balance showed a quick snapshot of the validity of the company's transactions during audits and other legations, while Engagement handled to processes of opening, tracking and successfully completing the client work.

              

Sales and use taxes could hardly be a more simple matter. Calculate your total sales for the month, multiply by the tax rate for the jurisdiction (usually city, county and state) and remit to amount due. If you somehow forget to do it, or miscalculate the amount, that jurisdiction will happily double-check your work and correct your math.

              

The National Society of Accountants has been approved as a continuing education provider by the Internal Revenue Service. The IRS sanction means that NSA can offer courses to professionals who are requried to complete 15 credit hours of CPE under the Registered Tax Return Preparer program.The approval also applies to courses for Enrolled Agents who must earn 72 credit hours every three years.

              

The Internal Revenue Service and the Justice Department has conducted a nationwide sweep to arrest perpetrators of tax refund fraud and identity theft. The agencies said they had targeted 105 people in 23 states and filed 939 criminal charges as part of 69 indictments.

              

A federal court has permanently barred Lakeisha Pearson of Birmingham, Ala., from preparing federal tax returns for others. Pearson operated under the names,  LGS Tax Service, PositiveEndeavors and  AGA Tax Service. Pearson was ordered to provide a copy of the injunction that bars her work to each person for whom she has prepared a federal tax return since Jan. 1, 2008.

              

While the average professional tax preparer is not using a cloud-based system this season, the Internet is still having a major impact on tax preparation. And that is because web-based tools, particularly portals, are pushing much of the rest of the process online.

              

There are lots of events that happen once and only once every year: Holidays like Thanksgiving, Birthdays like yours, and Sports like the Super Bowl. The Consumer Electronics Show almost falls within the once and only once category.

              

The Tax & Accounting business of Thomson Reuters predicts that the number of users of Mobile CS will triple this year. The company reports that there are more than 1,000 active user accounts. With the product's growth rate at about 15 percent a month, Thomson says the user base should reach 3,000 active accounts in 2012.

              

Intuit is offering a steep discount on its tax research line for Lacerte and ProSeries. The company has chopped more than half the cost of the product, whose unlimited annual subscription is usually $849, through April 15.

              

Nonprofit vendor Blackbaud is testing an application that will be used to provide financial analysis for nonprofit organizations and give them the ability to compare their operations against those of their peers. The product is in the middle of an early adopter program and would likely be sold as an add on to the company's applications such as the Financial Edge.

              

Accountants are increasingly using social media for business. But few get help from their firms in how to apply these tools, according to the 2011 Social CPAs Media Survey. And Barry MacQuarrie, who conducts the survey, said firms need to train those in their firms to get the most out of the new media.

              

Fujitsu's Kim Hogan, Business Development Manager, talks about their mobile and network scanners for accountants.

              

Bob Scott talks with Francesca Zelasko of SurePayroll about their accountant payroll reselling programs.

              

Bob Scott, talks with Fresh Books about their new Accountants Program and how they can refer and consult to their small business clients.