The House of Representatives took a strong step this week in support of America's taxpayers by voting to keep their private and sensitive tax information out of the hands of debt collectors.The action came in bipartisan approval of an amendment to the 2005 Transportation-Treasury spending bill that would prevent the Internal Revenue Service from using any funds to contract with private sector debt collectors to collect tax debts. The Senate is considering a separate version of the spending bill.The amendment's sponsor, Rep.

Kelly Services Inc. is credited with helping end a tax dodge that cost states more than $1 billion over the last decade.The loophole allowed companies to greatly reduce the money they paid to state unemployment trust funds. The federal State Unemployment Tax Act, or SUTA, directs states to set aside unemployment funds with taxes collected from employers.

If companies comply with a new rule on internal controls, it will make it hard for them to speed up their year-end reporting as the SEC had mandated, the Wall Street Journal reported.As a result the SEC is considering a one-year extension for public companies complying with the new rule that makes annual reports due 60 days after their year-end rather than 75 days as it was in the past.Public companies and large accounting firms are in agreement that more time is needed if they are also going to comply with the new Sarbanes-Oxley based rule that requires improved internal controls over f

Small businesses would receive a boost from legislation passed Wednesday by the U.S. House that would save small businesses $10.9 billion in taxes from 2006 through 2008, the Wall Street Journal reported. It is not clear how much support the measure has in the Senate.The House’s bill would extend a small business tax break that allows them to immediately write off up to $100,000 in capital purchases as a business expense.

Companies that incorporate outside the United States to avoid taxes would no longer be eligible for Export-Import Bank loans under a House of Representatives proposal.“They don't want to pay taxes in America. Not them. That's for the suckers of this country,” said bill sponsor Rep. Bernie Sanders, a Vermont independent.The House on Wednesday voted 270-132 to add the amendment to an annual foreign aid bill, Bloomberg reported. The government-backed Export-Import Bank provides loans to U.S.

On Thursday, President Bush signed into law, the Identity Theft Penalty Enhancement Act, creating stiffer criminal penalties for identity theft. The goal of this bill is to prevent identity theft by increasing the punishments associated with the crime and establishing a new crime of aggravated identity theft, which is the use of a stolen identity to commit certain criminal acts. Though solid numbers are hard to come by, identity fraud has been called one of the fastest-growing crimes in the U.S, touching millions of people at a cost of billions of dollars a year.

Some software companies are missing second quarter earnings estimates and are blaming the time, energy and money companies are spending on Sarbanes-Oxley Act requirements for slowing software purchase decisions, Reuters reported.The Sarbanes-Oxley reform legislation was enacted in 2002 after Enron imploded taking its auditing firm Arthur Andersen down with it. Veritas Software Corp.

A new law promoted by the Illinois CPA Society (ICPAS) will alter the state's Public Accounting Act with tougher ethics requirements and disciplinary enforcement. The accounting scandals of the past two years prompted the Society to take a long hard look at the profession.

In response to requests from constituents to improve the current guidance for measuring fair value, the Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) has published an Exposure Draft, Fair Value Measurements. The Exposure Draft seeks to establish a framework for measuring fair value that would apply broadly to financial and nonfinancial assets and liabilities, improving the consistency, comparability, and reliability of the measurements.