The Public Company Accounting Oversight Board has banned Stephen Crane, a CPA who formerly worked in Massachusetts but who now lives in China, from associating with any accounting firm registered with the board. The organization took the action alleging Crane failed to cooperate with requestions for information and also did not pay the fees required of a PCAOB-registered firm. The firm's registration was also revoked.

Two Florida CPAs, one a former member of the Florida State Board of Accountancy, have been suspended from practice before the SEC and the firm that both had been associated with was censured for their role in the 2007 audit of the financial statements of a company that recorded the sales of millions of dollars of skin care products that sat unsold in its warehouse. The SEC suspended Steven H. Dohan, managing director of Dohan + Co. and Nancy Brown, a CPA who was a director at the firm at the time.

Intuit believes that the number of tax returns filed during the 2011 tax season will be unchanged from last year. That's after two consecutive years of declines that stemmed from the recession. That prediction was among several points made this morning by Brad Smith, the tax and accounting company's CEO, as he addressed attendees at the company's annual shareholders' meeting.

Turnover in the executive ranks of Sage North America is continuing with the latest ready to depart Doug Meyer, who has held a variety of executive positions with Sage/Best Software since 1999. His important roles include a long relationship with the company's Peachtree software line. Meyer is leaving the company next month, although his plans were not revealed.