The Public Company Accounting Oversight Board has imposed a $2 million civil money penalty on Ernst & Young and barred two partners from being associated with a registered public accounting firm.  It is the largest penalty ever imposed on a CPA firm. The action stemmed from the firm's audits of financial statements of Medicis Pharmaceutical Corp., which sells drugs for pediatric asthma and skin conditions.The board also censured E&Y and two other partners.

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. Read more...

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.