August 2010 - The Tax Adviser

This article examines the tax and financial reporting consequences of companies using contingent consideration in payments for property and in payments to employees as compensation for services.

One change with major implications for S corporations with prior C corporation earnings is the sunset of the 15% tax rate on qualified dividends. This favorable rate is due to expire on December 31, 2010.

Parents and tax professionals can no longer assume that a college student will remain a dependent of the parent until he or she graduates. With the variety of funding sources students use to pay for the ever-increasing cost of higher education, many are likely to provide over one-half of their support at some point during their college years.

The Tax Adviser and the Journal of Accountancy conducted a survey of AICPA members who prepared 2009 tax returns for a fee to determine which tax preparation software products were the most popular, what aspects of those products preparers liked, and what they disliked.