In addition to the changes made for Bonus Depreciation and 1099 reporting, several other items of interest were changed by the recent legislation for 2011 and 2012:

Recently, the IRS began sending out notices related to tax year 2008 1099 forms. These notices detail problems with 1099 forms that our clients have filed, including incorrect or missing FEIN’s, incorrect names on the 1099’s, and other issues. Generally, a penalty for each occurrence is imposed, which could potentially total thousands of dollars for the client.

Until recently, U.S. generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP) have long been considered universally acceptable for both publicly and privately held companies. However, there have been growing concerns about the specific needs of privately held companies which must report to a narrower range of financial statement users, such as lenders, venture capitalists, and insurers.

Hidden within the 2,409-page document known as the Health Care Reform Law, is a provision intended to close the “tax gap,” the estimated $300 billion difference between tax revenue that is collected by the government and that which is not, presumably because of unreported business income.

Periodically we receive inquiries regarding how long you should keep old records. In general, record retention periods are the same for electronic records and their hard copy counterparts.

The following items reflect answers to frequently asked questions, and highlights some important tax information.