Vol. 25 I No. 10 I October 2011

ANATOMY OF A MERGER p. 10
Arizona’s price Kong has ambitious plans to grow
through mergers — and a process to make it happen
YEAR-END TAX PLANNING p. 16
Tax columnists Jones & Luscombe on
strategies old and new to help your clients

accountingtoday.com

THE LURE OF PAYROLL p. 33
Love it or hate it, helping clients handle their
payroll is proving profitable for many firms

The Financial Accounting Foun- dation is poised to release the proposals of its trustee working group for changing the structure and process of the Financial Accounting Standards Board’s oversight of standards for private companies and nonprofits.

In an exclusive interview with Accounting Today in mid-September, Teresa Polley, president and CEO of the Financial Accounting Foundation, which oversees FASB and the Governmental Accounting Standards Board, indicated that the proposals for structural changes at FASB should be out by the end of September or early October. There will then be a 60-day or longer comment period to give constituents a chance to provide feedback, and any changes in the structure of the board would likely happen in 2012.

The proposals come in response to recommendations from the Blue Ribbon Panel on Standard-Setting for Private Companies, which issued a report earlier this year calling for the establishment of a

FAF:
Ready
to move

Polley details time frame for decision on private co. standards

See FAF on 49

BY MICHAEL COHN

ACCOUNTING FOR DISASTER FIRMS HELP THEMSELVES—AND OTHERS BY KEN RANKIN AND MICHAEL COHN / NEW YORK

Tax Software Update

Vendors brace for next tax season

Top tax publishers on their concerns, enhancements

Practitioners tend to view tax season with mixed feelings. On the downside, there’s getting clients to send you the data you need to construct their return, and determining how much of what they give you is actually germane to the return.

Long hours, missed weekends and frayed tempers add to the witch’s brew.

Still, tax prep is a, if not the, major source of revenue for many firms. And seeing an increasing bank balance, at least for the short term, helps most put up with all of the aggravation coming their way for months at a time every year.

Given the important role that

See TAX SOFTWARE on 51

BY TED NEEDLEMAN

Holding Steady
September October
ACI

As last month’s one-two punch
of Hurricane Irene and Tropi-
cal Storm Lee devastated the
East Coast with massive flood-
ing, widespread power outages
and as-yet-uncalculated bil-
lions in damages, many of that
region’s accounting firms were
forced to implement disaster
recovery programs before busi-
ness slowly returned to normal.