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Isaac M. O'Bannon

Managing Editor

isaac.obannon@cpapracticeadvisor.com

Isaac M. O'Bannon is the managing editor and digital content manager for CPA Practice Advisor (www.CPAPracticeAdvisor.com), drawing on two decades of experience covering the areas of professional accounting, taxation, business productivity and consumer technologies. Prior to CPA Practice Advisor, O'Bannon was a consultant at firms in San Francisco, Denver and Tulsa, serving clients that included Logitech, Polycom, Hilti, Microsoft, the Stanford Research Institute, the University of Oklahoma's College of Engineering and other technology leaders. He is a U.S. Navy veteran. Email: isaac.obannon - @ - cpapracticeadvisor.com

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Accounting

AICPA Offers New Education Website

The American Institute of CPAs has launched a new website designed to spark a profession-wide reevaluation of how CPAs engage in lifelong learning and measure competency in a fast-changing world.

Cloud Technology

QuickBooks Online Users Can Now Accept Bitcoin Payments

With news that Intuit's QuickBooks Online can now accept Bitcoin transactions, the virtual currency may finally be ready to go more mainstream.

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Automation

Virginia Society of CPAs Partners with Avalara

Avalara and the Virginia Society of Certified Public Accountants have reached an agreement where VSCPA members will have unlimited access to up-to-date sales and use tax rules, rates, forms, and related reference resources, to better assist their clients, and/or their employers, in complying with a rapidly changing and complex regulatory environment.

Accounting

Exact Partners with Logicbroker for Enhanced Supply Chain Management

Small business management software maker Exact has is partnering with Logicbroker to give customers greater visibility into their extended supply chain through integrated storefront e-commerce, shipping, and electronic data interchange (EDI).

Income Tax

IRS Announces New Program for Uncredentialed Tax Return Preparers

The IRS has started a new voluntary program that it says is intended to encourage education and filing season readiness for paid tax return preparers who are not credentialed. The program will be in place to help taxpayers during the 2015 filing season.

Firm Management

Intuit Signs with SmartVault to Provide Document Management for ProSeries and Lacerte

Small business accounting and tax company Intuit has partnered with cloud document storage and sharing firm SmartVault, which will provide integrated cloud-based document management for Intuit's two professional tax systems, Lacerte and ProSeries. The combination of these professional programs is intended to further automate tax preparation workflow, from receiving source files securely from clients to printing and sharing final tax returns with a built-in custom branded client portal.

Benefits

Massachusetts Increases Minimum Wage to $11, Decreases Unemployment Insurance

Governor Deval Patrick signed legislation to increase the minimum wage in increments to $11 per hour by 2017. The law also lowers unemployment insurance costs.

Security

Report Shows 18% of Small Businesses Still Using Windows XP

According to a new report, almost one in five small and medium businesses worldwide are exposed to major security risks as they are still using Windows XP after Microsoft ended support for the operating system.

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Accounting

Finance Teams Expand Duties in Response to Business Complexity

The role of finance teams is expanding beyond the traditional areas of accounting and financial reporting, according to a new survey by the AICPA and the Chartered Institute of Management Accountants.

Accounting

Taxes Remain Biggest Issue Impacting Small Businesses

If there was a Letterman Top 10 list for the things that make small business owners have a migraine, the number one spot would be the U.S. tax structure.

Financial Planning

Analytical Consumers Do Better Financially

New research by Money Anxiety shows that analytical consumers earned an average of $139 a year in interest income on a $10,000 certificate of deposit compared to only $62 in annual interest income earned by consumers who made an impulsive decision to move their money to liquid bank accounts such as checking, savings and money market.

Accounting

Tax Experts Explain New E-Signature Rules in Free CPE Webcast

On Tuesday, July 15, CPA Practice Advisor is hosting a free webcast titled, "Electronic Signatures and the IRS ... Everything You Need to Know." Sponsored by Wolters Kluwer CCH, the CPE-eligible webcast will cover the latest changes to electronic filing, including topics that are especially important for tax professionals and their clients.