Use tax collections

The article reports on a study which investigated the level of compliance with U.S. state use tax laws and the techniques employed by the states in order to enforce use tax. Most states utilize either of two forms of tax reporting and collection. These are: the introduction of a separate use tax form/return; or the use of a separate line on the state income tax return. It was observed that utilizing a separate line item on the state income tax return might cause a rise in the number of taxpayers

Tax Professionals\u27 Perceptions of Small Business Tax Law Complexity

The author’s report in this article on their study in questionnaire format that tested the perception of 89 small-business tax practitioners regarding the com- plexity of 37 tax provisions. They found overwhelming consistency on the five most complex and five least complex small-business tax provisions with partner- ships, estate and gift valuations, tax-deferred ex- changes, frequency of law changes, and retirement plans topping the hit parade. Progressive tax rates, estimated taxes, Social Security/self-employment taxes, corporate capital gain provisions, and cash ver- sus accrual method were uniformly and consistently perceived as the least complex. These results have tax policy implications. According to the authors, for ex- ample, a House bill to move S corporations to a part- nership regime may not be optimal from the simplifi- cation perspective. The authors question whether familiarity with an issue results in lower perception of complexity. There is some discussion in the tax policy literature about tiering (different tax rules for small versus large companies). That policy seems to have made certain tax areas (cash versus accrual, deprecia- tion, installment sales, and possibly corporate alterna- tive minimum tax and uniform capitalization (UNI- CAP) less complex for small-business practitioners

Business Process Maturity’s Effect on Performance

Recent adoption of the Business Process Maturity Model (BPMM) by the Object Management Group (OMG) provides a means for managers to benchmark and monitor business processes as well as a roadmap for process improvement. The expectation is that as maturity increases, the result is a positive impact on performance; however, little empirical research has examined to what extent, if any process maturity has on performance. We conduct a survey of manufacturing firms to study the effects of process maturity on performance for two boundary spanning processes: purchasing and order fulfillment. Our results indicate that organizations with more mature purchasing processes appear to have higher relative levels of efficiency process outcomes than those with less mature purchasing processes. Similarly more mature order fulfillment processes do appear to have higher relative levels of quality process outcomes than those with less mature order fulfillment processes

Using Peer Grading and Proofreading to Ratchet Student Expectations in Preparing Accounting Cases

Accounting educators struggle with ways to incorporate the development of critical thinking and communication skills into the curriculum. Case analysis is one tool for developing these skills. We examine whether students’ case analysis scores improve as a result of participation in peer grading and peer review. We find that students improve their ability to perform case analyses after both evaluating and being evaluated by student peers. Students initially experience an Expectation Ratcheting learning effect after evaluating the case of a peer. Subsequently, students experience an Enhanced Feedback learning effect from the comments and suggestions made by the peers who evaluated (proofread) their cases

Tax Complexity and Small Business: A Comparison of the Perceptions of Tax Agents in the United States and Australia

There is ongoing pressure in both the United States and Australia to simplify their respective tax systems, particularly in regard to small business taxpayers. In the case of both regimes, if substantial progress is to be made towards simplification, the areas of greatest need and the necessary reforms will require careful evaluation. The views of tax agents (practitioners) are highly relevant to the implementation of successful reform in that both regimes rely on self-assessment. It was considered that by undertaking a cross-jurisdictional comparison a greater understanding of complexity, from the perspective of tax agents, could be gained and that, the consideration of alternate treatments could better inform tax policymakers. That is, what can we learn from each other? The article; compares and contrasts the perceptions of practitioners on small business tax complexity based on a questionnaire instrument conducted in the US and an electronic survey and case study conducted in Australia. Tax practitioners in the US consistently rated the areas of partnerships, estate, and gift valuations, tax deferred exchanges, frequency of law changes and retirement plans as the most complex and progressive tax rates, estimated taxes, social security/self-employment taxes, corporate capital gain provisions and cash v accrual method as the least complex. In comparison, Australian practitioners found the frequency of change, the volume of legislative material and the effect of change on other aspects of taxation (including reporting) to be the major causes of complexity. Capital gains tax provisions were regarded as complex as were self-managed superannuation funds and trusts, but similar to US tax practitioners, Australian tax agents did not find the use of tax rates or accounting methods to be complex. The policy implications of these findings are discussed for both regimes, including the implications of having small business-specific rules. Reprinted by permission of the publisher

Vitamin D supplementation and breast cancer prevention : a systematic review and meta-analysis of randomized clinical trials

In recent years, the scientific evidence linking vitamin D status or supplementation to breast cancer has grown notably. To investigate the role of vitamin D supplementation on breast cancer incidence, we conducted a systematic review and meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials comparing vitamin D with placebo or no treatment. We used OVID to search MEDLINE (R), EMBASE and CENTRAL until April 2012. We screened the reference lists of included studies and used the “Related Article” feature in PubMed to identify additional articles. No language restrictions were applied. Two reviewers independently extracted data on methodological quality, participants, intervention, comparison and outcomes. Risk Ratios and 95% Confident Intervals for breast cancer were pooled using a random-effects model. Heterogeneity was assessed using the I2 test. In sensitivity analysis, we assessed the impact of vitamin D dosage and mode of administration on treatment effects. Only two randomized controlled trials fulfilled the pre-set inclusion criteria. The pooled analysis included 5372 postmenopausal women. Overall, Risk Ratios and 95% Confident Intervals were 1.11 and 0.74–1.68. We found no evidence of heterogeneity. Neither vitamin D dosage nor mode of administration significantly affected breast cancer risk. However, treatment efficacy was somewhat greater when vitamin D was administered at the highest dosage and in combination with calcium (Risk Ratio 0.58, 95% Confident Interval 0.23–1.47 and Risk Ratio 0.93, 95% Confident Interval 0.54–1.60, respectively). In conclusions, vitamin D use seems not to be associated with a reduced risk of breast cancer development in postmenopausal women. However, the available evidence is still limited and inadequate to draw firm conclusions. Study protocol code: FARM8L2B5L

The POU-specific domain of Pit-1 is essential for sequence-specific, high affinity DNA binding and DNA-dependent Pit-1—Pit-1 interactions

Pit-1 is a member of a family of transcription factors sharing two regions of homology: a highly conserved POU-specific (POU s) domain and a more divergent homeodomain (POU HD). Analysis of mutant Pit-1 proteins suggests that, while the POU HD is required and sufficient for low affinity DNA binding, the POU s domain is necessary for high affinity binding and accurate recognition of natural Pit-1 response elements. Pit-1 is monomeric in solution but associates as a dimer on its DNA response element, exhibiting DNA-dependent protein-protein interactions requiring the POU s domain. Analysis of α-helical domains and conserved structures in Pit-1 suggests that POU domain proteins interact with their DNA recognition sites differently than classic homeodomain proteins, with both the POU HD and the POU s domain contacting DNA. Transcriptional activity of Pit-1 on enhancer elements is conferred primarily by a Ser- and Thr-rich N-terminal region unrelated to other known transcription-activating motifs

A gene-expression screen identifies a non-toxic sumoylation inhibitor that mimics SUMO-less human LRH-1 in liver.

SUMO-modification of nuclear proteins has profound effects on gene expression. However, non-toxic chemical tools that modulate sumoylation in cells are lacking. Here, to identify small molecule sumoylation inhibitors we developed a cell-based screen that focused on the well-sumoylated substrate, human Liver Receptor Homolog-1 (hLRH-1, NR5A2). Our primary gene-expression screen assayed two SUMO-sensitive transcripts, APOC3 and MUC1, that are upregulated by SUMO-less hLRH-1 or by siUBC9 knockdown, respectively. A polyphenol, tannic acid (TA) emerged as a potent sumoylation inhibitor in vitro (IC50 = 12.8 µM) and in cells. TA also increased hLRH-1 occupancy on SUMO-sensitive transcripts. Most significantly, when tested in humanized mouse primary hepatocytes, TA inhibits hLRH-1 sumoylation and induces SUMO-sensitive genes, thereby recapitulating the effects of expressing SUMO-less hLRH-1 in mouse liver. Our findings underscore the benefits of phenotypic screening for targeting post-translational modifications, and illustrate the potential utility of TA for probing the cellular consequences of sumoylation

A gene-expression screen identifies a non- toxic sumoylation inhibitor that mimics SUMO-less human LRH-1 in liver

Abstract SUMO-modification of nuclear proteins has profound effects on gene expression. However, non-toxic chemical tools that modulate sumoylation in cells are lacking. Here, to identify small molecule sumoylation inhibitors we developed a cell-based screen that focused on the wellsumoylated substrate, human Liver Receptor Homolog-1 (hLRH-1, NR5A2). Our primary geneexpression screen assayed two SUMO-sensitive transcripts, APOC3 and MUC1, that are upregulated by SUMO-less hLRH-1 or by siUBC9 knockdown, respectively. A polyphenol, tannic acid (TA) emerged as a potent sumoylation inhibitor in vitro (IC 50 = 12.8 mM) and in cells. TA also increased hLRH-1 occupancy on SUMO-sensitive transcripts. Most significantly, when tested in humanized mouse primary hepatocytes, TA inhibits hLRH-1 sumoylation and induces SUMOsensitive genes, thereby recapitulating the effects of expressing SUMO-less hLRH-1 in mouse liver. Our findings underscore the benefits of phenotypic screening for targeting post-translational modifications, and illustrate the potential utility of TA for probing the cellular consequences of sumoylation