Xero and Intuit both reached milestones in the last week in the number of subscribers to their online accounting programs. Xero said during its Xerocon conference in Denver that it has reached 500,000 subscribers. The next day its rival, Intuit, said that there are now more than 1 million subscribers for QuickBooks Online.

Intuit is taking orders for an EMV Reader that will be necessary for businesses when a new credit card standard goes into effect in October. The new standard—short for Europay, MasterCard and Visa—provides credit and debit cards with embedded chips. ntuit notes businesses must be able to accept EMV cards or they will be responsible for fraudulent card-present transactions that occur when customers are using chip-based cards.

Extensive information on like-kind exchanges has been added to Checkpoint Catalyst. New material on the Thomson Reuters research platform is available in Checkpoint Catalyst Topic 505 Like-Kind Exchanges, provides guidance on how to defer taxable gain by exchanging property held for productive use in a trade or business or for investment, for like-kind property.