Tax News

CCH (cch.taxgroup.com) reports:

CCH Tax and Accounting is hosting a live two-hour audio seminar, FIN 48 For Private Companies: Implementing the New Reporting Requirements for Non-Public Entities, on Thursday, May 29. The seminar will begin at 1:00 p.m. Eastern, noon Central, 10:00 a.m. Pacific.
FIN 48 applies to all entities that prepare GAAP financial statements. Initially, public companies were affected but, now, effective for calendar-year 2008 and later financial statements, private companies also need to comply with the onerous FIN 48 reporting requirements. Public company experience has shown that FIN 48 implementation can be a difficult process. With private companies, there are many unique characteristics brought to the table that present a range of challenges to those who are responsible for FIN 48 compliance. FIN 48 applies in some situations to, and may often indirectly apply in other situations to, pass-through entities, as well as to nonprofit organizations that may incur income taxes. Because CPA firms for privately held financial statement issuers often prepare and are the primary advisor on the entity's tax returns, independence impairment may also present significant problems.
Learn about these issues, concerns and best practices for implementing FIN 48 reporting with private companies. Presented by highly regarded practitioner and speaker Kip Dellinger, CPA, this helpful session will offer you a practical review of FIN 48 issues and the unique considerations for privately held businesses. Dellinger will discuss issues that arise during initial implementation and for ongoing compliance, including FIN 48 reporting for private companies with few or no internal tax staff, nonexistent or minimal internal tax controls, no past company tax audit history to benchmark tax positions against, and situations involving business owners who have taken very aggressive tax positions. Areas that will be addressed include:
--Identifying all material, uncertain tax positions;
--Categorizing, prioritizing, documenting and substantiating tax positions in relation to the more-likely-than-not (MLTN) standard;
--Measuring positions that fall short of the MLTN standard;
--Pass-through entity issues;
--Special considerations/thorny areas --e.g., interest expense, foreign related parties and transactions, stock or asset acquisitions, NOLs, personal expenses of owners that are paid by the company, etc.;
--Positions relying on valuation;
--Monitoring changes in tax law and understanding and reporting their impact on tax positions;
--Communicating tax exposures to company executives and privilege issues; and
--Disclosure challenges for private companies.
Registration can be completed online at http://www.krm.com/cch or by calling 1-800-775-7654. Participants can receive two hours of CPE credit for an additional $25 per person. Registrants for this audio seminar will receive a copy of CCH's Top Federal Tax Issues for 2008.

State Headlines

Colorado --Corporate Income Tax: Single Sales Factor Apportionment Enacted
Multistate corporations and partnerships doing business both within and outside Colorado must use a single sales factor apportionment formula in computing their state corporate income tax liability for tax years after 2008. Under recently enacted legislation, business income, defined as the "net income of the taxpayer arising from the transactions and activity in the regular course of a taxpayer's trade or business," must be apportioned to Colorado based on a ratio of the taxpayer's sales in Colorado to the total sales of the taxpayer. Nonbusiness income, defined as "all income other than business income," is subject to allocation. Taxpayers may elect to treat all income as business income. Under Colorado's current apportionment system, multistate corporations and partnerships have the choice to apportion their business and nonbusiness income utilizing a two-factor (property/sales) method or to apportion their business income using a three-factor (property/payroll/sales) method. Additionally, the legislation also establishes a separate method of apportioning income for mutual fund service corporations.
H.B. 1380, Laws 2008, effective January 1, 2009, applicable as noted.