Two CPAs have filed suit against the Internal Revenue Service claiming its collection of annual fees for Preparer Tax Identification Numbers is not legal. Minnesota CPA Adam Steele and Georgia CPA Brittany Montrois seek to have their litigation certified as a class action suit. The plaintiffs are seeking to have the fees halted and receive refunds on those paid since they were implemented in 2010.

Vertex SMB has signed accounting firm Wipfli as a reseller of its sales-tax software. The deal marks the continuation of the signing of high-profile CPA organizations and value-added reseller in its relatively new channel program.

A tax preparer based in Brick Township, N.J., has pleaded guilty to one-count of aiding and assisting in the preparations of false tax returns. Sharif Mahfouz, age 49, admitted that while he operated as owner of Expat Focus Consulting fabricated or inflated foreign earned income exclusion amounts and foreign tax credits. He then had client refunds mailed to his home after which he forged signatures and deposited them into his company's account.