With accountants ready to enter the busiest part of busy season, it's always good to check your oil and air, so to speak, to make sure the vehicle is ready to run the distance. Some of these involve technology and disaster planning, other process and people issues that can make the tax preparation process a lot less painful.

As tax season heats up, practitioners may discover that more clients have debt cancellation income than in past filing seasons. That is understandable. When the recession got into high gear in early 2009, many credit card lenders realized that some consumers were so overextended that they would never be able to pay the full amount of their debts. As a result, some lenders decided to take whatever they could get from these distressed borrowers and forgive the rest. In addition, as real estate prices soured, more and more lenders foreclosed on home loans or allowed borrowers to engage in short sales. All this has translated to more clients with debt cancellation income, which is taxable unless an exception or exclusion applies.

WASHINGTON - A CPA based in Houston has been suspended from practice before the Internal Revenue Service for 12 months for providing false or misleading information in connection with the preparation of client tax returns. The Office of Professional Responsibility took the action against CPA Robert A. Loeser who it said assisted clients in claiming false business expenses on tax returns he prepared.