Business management solutions provider Zoho announced the general release of a new payments solution, Zoho Payments, promised to be the first step in a broader move into financial services. 

The new Zoho Payments solution focuses specifically on incoming, not outgoing, payments. While there are already several options to accept payments from within the Zoho ecosystem, Sivaramakrishnan Iswaran, Zoho’s global head of finance and operations, said what makes this product different is that it works through its own payment gateway instead of integrating with someone else’s. This gateway (basically the software needed to accept debit or credit card purchases from customers) will also be integrated with all the other solutions in the Zoho ecosystem, as well as their workflows. However, he later added that it will still support third-party integrations in case a customer wanted to use another one. 

Zoho Payments will also be available as a standalone offer, with Iswaran saying Zoho will be directly competing with incumbent payment solutions providers like Stripe and PayPal. 

“The obvious question is why are you getting into this area? Honestly, there is no one particular vendor who can actually address all the problems for [every] customer,” he said during an interview. “The market is huge. There is room for a lot of players, and each market player can find their own niche.” 

In the case of Zoho Payments, the major differentiating factor will be the amount of support happening in the background to facilitate all the major checks and balances typically needed for secure payments. Accepting payments can entail a lot more than just receiving the money and sending a receipt. Before the payment, businesses might need to consider things like identity verification, know-your-customer rules, sanctions and anti-money laundering screening, fraud and risk management; after the payment, they might need to think about transaction settlements, bank reconciliation, tax reporting and dispute resolution. 

Iswaran said this typically requires a lot of manual processes on the part of the user, which can delay the onboarding of new customers, sometimes severely so. By using its own dedicated payment portal, Zoho can do a lot of the heavy lifting without the user even noticing. While a transaction might seem simple to those sending and receiving the payment, it is supported by extensive support — both automated and manual — happening in the background.

“We do a lot of heavy lifting in the background,” said Iswaran during the product announcement. “For example, before giving a merchant account to a customer, we have to do the complete [know-your-customer] check, identity verification, [anti-money laundering] and various sanction screenings, abide by various compliance rules that are set by the card networks like Visa and by the various central banks and the banks, manage risk and fraud, a whole lot of things. … So the product definition might look simple, but underneath, the underlying product is very complex.”  

Beyond this dedicated support, he said that integrating Payments into the wider Zoho ecosystem means the solution both supports, and is supported by, other products in the suite. By working together, he said they can create a true end-to-end solution that covers every step of the process from start to finish. 

“So we will actually embed the Zoho Payments natively in all these products, into the entire ecosystem, making accepting payments very simple and easy. And we will also be supporting the various flows in which the payments can be collected. That is sending out an invoice and collecting the payment, or maybe sending out a payment link, or just collecting payment through hosted pages or subscription-related payments, or maybe just embedding a checkout form to collect payment from the e-commerce website. So we’ll be supporting all these scenarios. So with this payment launch, we actually cover the end to end of the spectrum,” he said at the product launch. 

Zoho Payments launched last year in India before becoming generally available now. Iswaran, in an interview, said that India (where Zoho is based) was a good place to start because the Central Bank of India imposes an unusually large amount of financial regulation and reporting requirements to regulate the payment industry there. The thinking was that if Zoho could build a product to satisfy regulators in India, it could be successful in many other countries as well. 

“Being a regulated business, the central bank actually asks for a lot of things,” said Iswaran. For example, it often asks companies how they’ll respond to particular scenarios that arise over the course of its work, “so that’s the kind of environment we have in involvement with the central bank in India. So that actually prepares us a lot, and that is definitely helping us with the launch this year as well,” he said. 

Iswaran said the release is just the first step in a larger push into the fintech/financial services space. 

“We have more products to follow. Zoho will have more exciting launches, so stay tuned,” he said at the end of the product launch. 

Zoho Payments helps businesses accept card payments in over 135 currencies and ACH payments for transactions within the U.S. The payment solution works out-of-the-box with Zoho’s apps from finance and operations, sales and marketing, low-code and collaboration platforms. Businesses can also connect to any third-party systems via APIs to collect payments. The solution is PCI DSS Level 1 compliant. 

Zoho Payments is now available for use. Pricing for domestic cards is 2.9% + 30¢ per transaction, which includes Visa, Mastercard, Amex, Discover, JCB, UnionPay and Diners Club. The pricing for international cards is 1.5% plus the domestic card fee.

JAY MALLIN/BLOOMBERG NEWS

The Internal Revenue Service will begin taking applications for 2026 Low Income Taxpayer Clinic matching grants from qualified organizations this Thursday, May 15, through July 14.

Organizations may request up to $200,000 for the 2026 grant year. For every dollar of funding awarded by the IRS, a taxpayer clinic must provide a dollar in matching funds, and it must provide services for free or at a nominal fee.

For 2026, the IRS is looking to obtain LITC coverage for Hawaii, Kansas, Montana and West Virginia. Florida, Nevada and South Dakota are also only partially covered by LITCs; uncovered counties in these states include:

• Florida: Brevard, Citrus, Glades, Hamilton, Hardee, Hendry, Hernando, Highlands, Indian River, Lafayette, Lake, Madison, Martin, Nassau, Okeechobee, Orange, Osceola, Polk, Seminole, St. Johns, St. Lucie, Sumter, Suwannee, Taylor and Volusia.
• Nevada: Carson City, Churchill, Douglas, Elko, Esmeralda, Eureka, Humboldt, Lander, Lincoln, Lyon, Mineral, Nye, Pershing, Storey and White Pine.
• South Dakota: Aurora, Beadle, Bennett, Bon Homme, Brookings, Brown, Brule, Buffalo, Butte, Campbell, Charles Mix, Clark, Clay, Codington, Corson, Custer, Davison, Deuel, Dewey, Douglas, Edmunds, Fall River, Faulk, Grant, Gregory, Haakon, Hamlin, Hand, Hanson, Harding, Hughes, Hutchinson, Hyde, Jackson, Jerauld, Jones, Kingsbury, Lake, Lawrence, Lincoln, Lyman, McCook, McPherson, Meade, Mellette, Miner, Minnehaha, Moody, Oglala Lakota, Pennington, Perkins, Potter, Sanborn, Shannon, Spink, Stanley, Sully, Todd, Tripp, Turner, Union, Walworth, Yankton and Ziebach.

The IRS is “especially interested” in applications from organizations providing services in underserved areas. 
More information is in IRS Publication 3319, “2026 Grant Application Package and Guidelines.” The LITC Program Office will have a webinar about LITCs and the application process on May 22 from 1-3 p.m. EST. Details are on the LITC Grants website.

The American Institute of CPAs and the National Association of State Boards of Accountancy have given their approval to new model legislation providing an alternative path to a CPA license in an effort to attract more people to the accounting profession.

The optional path aims to maintain public protection while offering additional flexibility and options for CPA candidates. The changes will add an extra pathway to CPA licensure requiring a baccalaureate degree, including an accounting concentration, along with two years of experience, and passage of the Uniform CPA Examination. 

Other revisions to the model legislation, which can be used by states, include a shift from state-based mobility to an individual-based practice privilege that would maintain a CPA’s ability to practice across state lines with just one license. There’s also new safe harbor language allowing CPAs who were licensed under differing education, experience and exam requirements as of Dec. 31, 2024, to continue to have practice privileges under mobility.

The AICPA and NASBA proposed the changes to the UAA last September and an alternative path to CPA licensure in February.

“By aligning our model legislative framework with the laws recently adopted in certain states, we’re encouraging removal of outdated barriers and reaffirming our commitment to a truly mobile CPA profession,” said Susan Coffey, the AICPA’s CEO of public accounting, in a statement Wednesday. “Businesses today demand seamless practice across state lines, and this action provides legislators and regulators with a model under which CPAs can meet that need without disruption. This is how we protect the public while keeping the profession strong, relevant, and ready for what’s next.”

The additional path will be included in the amended Uniform Accountancy Act to be released early this summer by AICPA and NASBA. The UAA offers state legislatures and boards of accountancy a national model that can be adopted in whole or in part to meet the needs of each individual jurisdiction.

“NASBA and Boards of Accountancy remain committed to maintaining public protection while implementing these changes to the UAA,” said NASBA president and CEO Daniel Dustin in a statement. “We will continue to work closely with state boards as the new pathway and changes to CPA mobility are implemented.”

The new pathway envisions a wider role for experience to be determined at the jurisdiction level. Individual states will still need to formally enact legislation and/or adopt rules and regulations, depending on the jurisdiction, before candidates can pursue this path. To date, 14 states have done so.

The new pathway would be added to the existing pathways:

Post-baccalaureate degree with an accounting concentration plus one year of experience plus passage of the CPA Exam;

Baccalaureate degree with an accounting concentration plus 30 credits plus one year of experience + passage of the CPA Exam.

The updated edition of the UAA maintains that oversight and disciplinary authority over licensees continues with a state board of accountancy.

The AICPA and NASBA asked for feedback on the proposals in March, and the various comments on the proposals can be found on the NASBA and AICPA  websites. They intend to continue to have discussions on maintaining the relevance of the UAA while also exploring the knowledge and skills needed for a newly licensed CPA to serve the public, promote public protection, and be positioned for a career as a CPA. The organizations said they’re discussing conducting a wide-ranging study that will include research and engagement with stakeholders, including regulators and the CPA profession.

As they begin this new phase, the AICPA and NASBA are also exploring opportunities for how to help CPAs navigate practice mobility as states enact legislation.