Wolters Kluwer, CCH Small Firm Services has introduced a web-based platform, CCH iFirm, that paves the way for placing its entire tax and accounting suite in the cloud. Currently, iFirm offers access to practice management and trial balance functions. But more applications likely will be placed under the iFirm umbrella to draw from a common database.

The number of tax returns filed electronically by tax professionals outstripped the growth of those that were self-prepared. Those numbers represent a change in the pattern of the last few years and came as the Internal Revenue Service this month released the first tally of statistics for the current tax season.

Two owners of a tax preparation business, who used prison inmates' returns to claim inflated refunds, have been convicted on several charges. A jury took one hour to convict Kamal J. James and Crystal G. Hawkins of conspiracy, mail fraud and making false claims to the United States for filing returns on behalf of inmates at New Jersey prisons and halfway houses.