Insero Advisors LLC, a firm based in Rochester, New York, has received a strategic investment from Rallyday Partners, a private equity firm in Denver, to accelerate its growth and expand its service offerings.

With the investment, Insero plans to enhance its advisory services, integrate advanced technologies into its operations, double down on its “people-first” culture, and broaden its reach across new regions. Insero’s strategy will include partnering with other like-minded public accounting, advisory, and professional services firms and adding more service lines for clients.

Following the closing of the transaction, Insero will operate an alternative practice structure in which Insero & Co. CPAs, LLP, a licensed CPA firm, will provide attest services, and Insero Advisors, LLC, will provide business advisory, tax and other non-attest services. 

“Insero has always been committed to helping our clients succeed by providing solutions that address their unique challenges and opportunities,” said Insero CEO Nancy Catarisano in a statement Tuesday. “We are excited for this next step as we lead the reinvention of the public accounting and consulting industries at a national level. This partnership with Rallyday is going to enable us to get to this vision faster and smarter, and we could not be more thrilled.”

Insero & Company CPAs has frequently been ranked among Accounting Today’s Best Firms to Work For over the past decade. Beyond enhancing client services, Insero plans to continue its investment in its people, offering employees opportunities to learn, innovate, and contribute to impactful projects with a great sense of purpose.

“We are honored and inspired to partner with Nancy and the team at Insero as they redefine what it means to be a modern accounting firm,” said Rallyday managing partner Ryan Heckman in a statement. “Their clients consistently praise the firm’s ability to deliver exceptional results through a unique blend of technical expertise, operational savvy, and unwavering integrity. Insero’s commitment to innovation and personalized service truly sets them apart in the accounting and advisory space. They also share our dedication to the human side of business — prioritizing both employee development and meaningful client relationships — which makes this partnership even more compelling for Rallyday.”

The Internal Revenue Service is making some changes this tax season in an effort to combat tax scams in areas like the Fuel Tax Credit.

The IRS is teaming up with partners in the Coalition of Scam and Scheme Threats as part of the effort. 

Convened at the request of IRS Commissioner Danny Werfel, the CASST task force of federal and state tax agencies, software and financial companies, as well as key national tax professional associations, agreed to a new public private partnership in August focused on scams and schemes.

“Since its creation, this special group across the tax community has been working to take extra steps to protect taxpayers and the tax professional community,” Werfel said in a statement Tuesday. “This effort includes expanding outreach and education on emerging scams, developing innovative approaches to identify potentially fraudulent returns at the point of filing and creating infrastructure improvements to protect taxpayers as well as federal, state and industry tax systems. CASST partners have already worked together on important changes to protect taxpayers and tax professionals in the 2025 filing season, but this needs to be an ongoing effort given the continued expansion and threats from scams.”

The IRS noted that the Fuel Tax Credit has been promoted on social media as a tax break by promoters, but it’s available to relatively few taxpayers. The tax credit is designed for off-highway business and farming use, and taxpayers need to have a legitimate business purpose and a qualifying business activity such as running a farm or purchasing aviation gasoline to be eligible for the credit. Most taxpayers don’t qualify to claim the credit. The IRS has developed the “Statement Supporting Fuel Tax Credit (FTC) Computation – 1” to educate taxpayers on eligibility requirements for claiming the credit.

The IRS is also stepping up its review of various “other withholding” claims on Form 1040 that have been exploited by scammers and schemers. To decrease potential delays in verifying the “Other Withholding” claimed, the IRS is encouraging taxpayers to attach the supporting documentation to their tax return. Some of the main forms covered by Line 25c, “Other Withholding”, include Form 1042-S, Foreign Person’s U.S. Source Income Subject to Withholding; Form 8805, Foreign Partner’s Information Statement of Section 1446 Withholding Tax; Form 8288-A, Statement of Withholding on Dispositions by Foreign Persons of U.S. Real Property Interests; Form W2G, Certain Gambling Winnings; Form 8959, Additional Medicare Tax; and Schedule K1, Partner’s Share of Income, Deductions, Credits, etc.

The IRS is reaching out to taxpayers who have potentially been using “ghost preparers” to prepare tax returns. These preparers don’t identify themselves on the tax return, which is a red flag for taxpayers to be misled into a scam or scheme. During the 2025 filing season, the IRS will send letters to taxpayers whose tax returns appear to have been completed by a paid tax preparer who did not sign or include their Preparer Tax Identification Number on the tax return. The letters aim to educate taxpayers about “ghost preparers” and to help the IRS identify those who are being paid to prepare returns and are not signing or including their PTIN on the return. The IRS said it’s continuing to see instances where ghost preparers dupe taxpayers into filing inaccurate tax returns for bigger refunds. The preparers later vanish like a ghost, leaving the taxpayer exposed to inaccurate claims.

During the 2025 filing season, the IRS plans to add more protections for tax professionals, aimed at protecting the tax pro’s Electronic Filing Identification Number or EFIN and PTIN from unauthorized use. More details will be available in the near future.

In the continuing saga of the fate of the Corporate Transparency Act, the New Civil Liberties Alliance filed an amicus curiae brief with the Supreme Court on Jan. 13, 2025, in Garland v. Texas Top Cop Shop. The brief urges the court to reject the government’s request to stay a preliminary injunction against the enforcement of the CTA and its beneficial ownership information reporting mandate. 

The CTA mandates that organizations that have filed for incorporation under state law submit detailed reports to the Treasury’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network, or FinCEN, with civil and criminal penalties available to the government to punish those who fail to comply, either by omitting information or even accidentally submitting false information. 

“These invasive requirements would apply to over 30 million nonprofit and for-profit organizations nationwide, and they apply prior to any commercial transactions or other type of economic activity,” according to the NCLA. 

Stefani Reynolds/Bloomberg

“The government claims the Constitution’s Commerce Clause authorizes the CTA, but Commerce Clause regulations must target economic activity, which the CTA does not regulate,” the NCLA’s brief noted. “The only thing that triggers disclosure under the CTA is coming into existence by filing incorporation paperwork with a state government, which is not economic activity because it does not involve producing, consuming or exchanging any good or service. The government argues that most organizations that incorporate will engage in future economic activity. But the Supreme Court held in the Obamacare case (NFIB v. Sebelius) that the government cannot justify regulation under the Commerce Clause based on anticipated future economic activity.”

The government’s alternative request — to narrow the scope of the nationwide preliminary injunction to just the corporate entities that sued in the Texas Top Cop Shop case — is likewise flawed, according to the NCLA: “The Administrative Procedure Act expressly authorizes the court to ‘postpone’ the Treasury Department’s rule enforcing the CTA, which necessarily extends to the whole country, not just the litigants.” 

Jamie Schaeffer, a partner at law firm Perkins Coie, said that it’s hard to predict what the court will do.

“The Treasury Department has made multiple alternative requests with broader implications beyond the CTA,” she explained. “One of them is whether it is appropriate for a federal district court to issue a nationwide injunction. Conservative justices generally favor district courts to not have that authority. During the first Trump administration a number of liberal courts took the approach that they had that authority. If the Supreme Court decides that it is not appropriate for a district court to set a nationwide standard, then FinCEN will have to set alternate filing dates. There are a lot of moving parts. We’re advising our clients to be ready to file the BOI Report at a moment’s notice.”

Kevin Granahan, practice management partner at law firm Fox Rothschild, agreed. 

“It’s really an unknown,” he said. “And it’s also unknown what Congress might do. Prior to the holidays, part of the funding package included a provision that would push back the deadline by one year. The final bill did not include that delay, so the question now is whether Congress will take action, especially given the change in administrations. President Trump could tell the DOJ to simply drop the appeals, which would be the death knell for the CTA.”

As for a decision on the merits of the Commerce Clause argument, NCLA litigation counsel Sheng Li said: “It is true that most corporations will engage in commerce after coming into existence. But so will most everyone alive. If the mere propensity for commerce can be the basis for regulation under the Commerce Clause, then that power would be boundless, and any notion of limited government would cease.”