The coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic made remote audits a necessity rather than a luxury. CPA firms have adapted to the new environment, but challenges still remain with any client, perhaps especially not-for-profit organizations. The author...
The CPA Journal
The question of how to teach ethics has plagued academics for generations, with some even wondering whether it can be taught at all. Steven Mintz, an expert in ethics education, captured the landscape of ethics education in accounting in a ...
The CPA Journal
Among the phrases that likely send shivers down the spines of many young CPAs is, “next week, you’ll have to make the presentation.” Rather than embracing the opportunity, too many CPAs dread the thought of delivering a presentation in fron...
The CPA Journal
Retirement readiness is not an overnight success story. It is not a simple formula either. It takes dedication, hard work, and good strategies. Why? Because it is simply not just retirement savings. Read this article for a quick check to as...
Retirement Risk Advisors
The popular accountant stereotype portrays a person who lacks creativity, sitting alone crunching numbers. Those within the profession know that this portrayal is inaccurate and that the accounting profession encompasses a wide variety of s...
The CPA Journal
Millennials are the future of the accounting profession. Much has already been written about their generation’s preferences and the implications for employers. To attract and retain employees, however, it is important for employers to under...
The CPA Journal
Previous research has established that women suffer from the impacts of the “gender gap” in the middle to late stages of their career. This gender gap manifests itself as reduced pay and reduced advancement opportunity for women relative to...
The CPA Journal
The buzzword in CPA firms these days is advising: How do we get our firm to do more advising, how do our teams become advisors, and how do we sell advising to our clients?
The CPA Journal
Accounting—at least as an independent field of study—is becoming obsolete in today’s technology- and analytics-focused world. Its value lies in its interdisciplinary applicability and position as a foundational business curriculum. In recog...
The CPA Journal
In the past decade, sustainability has moved from the periphery to become central in the global efforts to promote economic development, foster trade, and lift people of all nations out of poverty. The UN has blazed a trail, as its Millenni...
The CPA Journal
Sustainability is an increasingly important topic for the accounting profession. Recently, the editors interviewed Jeffrey Hales, the Catherine W. and Edwin A. Wahlen, Jr., Professor of Accounting at Georgia Tech and the current chair of th...
The CPA Journal
Environmental, social, and governance (ESG) reporting is no longer considered a soft investment. Market demand and regulatory guidance are coalescing quickly. Consistent and transparent financial reporting standards have helped investors me...
The CPA Journal
To complement the data-driven analysis presented in the Rosenberg Survey (see page 20), the authors assembled a virtual roundtable of observers from around the profession to give us their predictions for the 2022. What will this new year br...
The CPA Journal
The seventh annual 2021 NYSSCPA–Rosenberg Survey identifies trends from the national 23rd Annual Practice Management Survey and provides profitability and growth data of participating New York CPA firms. This survey reflects how our profess...
The CPA Journal
One of the driving factors in both the economic picture and the capital markets is the expectation of rising interest rates. The Federal Reserve has now confirmed that it will begin raising rates in March 2022, and it will at the same time ...
The CPA Journal
Jerry Maginnis has written a book that should be on the bookshelf of anyone in the accounting profession, from interested students to experienced practitioners.
The CPA Journal
On October 23, 2017, the SEC approved Auditing Standard (AS) 3101, The Auditor’s Report on an Audit of Financial Statements When the Auditor Expresses an Unqualified Opinion. This standard requires some of the most significant changes to th...
The CPA Journal
Whether or not a business owner plans to sell or transfer their business in the next few years, obtaining a proper business valuation is critical. A professional valuation performed by an accredited specialist, based on accurate modeling an...
The CPA Journal
In September 2020, the Auditing Standards Board issued Statement on Standards for Attestation Engagements (SSAE) 21, Direct Examination Engagements. Its provisions are effective for assertion-based and direct examination engagement reports ...
The CPA Journal
Accounting trend observers report that audit and assurance services regarding environmental, social, and governance reporting, as well as cybersecurity risks, continue to be prominent issues for auditors. Retaining and recruiting talent als...
The CPA Journal
A business combination is a transaction or event by which an acquirer obtains control of a business (i.e., the acquiree). If the acquisition of an asset or asset group (including liabilities assumed) does not constitute a business, however,...
The CPA Journal
FASB, IASB News provided by Thomson Reuters Checkpoint
The CPA Journal
Recently, FASB issued a new Accounting Standards Update (ASU 2019-12), Simplifying the Accounting for Income Taxes. The new standard amends section 740 of the Accounting Standards Codification (ASC), eliminating some problematic exceptions ...
The CPA Journal
In my role as an executive in residence at Rowan University in southern New Jersey, I have had the opportunity to meet with many students and discuss their future.
The CPA Journal
For decades, leading standards setters have advocated a single set of global financial reporting standards. After large strides were made in converging U.S. GAAP and IFRS in the first decade of this century, progress seemingly stalled. The ...
The CPA Journal
For decades, leading standards setters have advocated a single set of global financial reporting standards. After large strides were made in converging U.S. GAAP and IFRS in the first decade of this century, progress seemingly stalled. The ...
The CPA Journal
An unconventional strategy for retirement, to maximize your life insurance policy is premium finance. Premium finance is where policyholders will pay substantial premiums via borrowing from a third-party lender—tying up the bank’s money ver...
Retirement Risk Advisors
This article is an updated and expanded version of one written by this author seven years ago (“Can Professionalism and Commercialism Coexist in CPA Firms? Putting the Public Interest before Increased Profits,” The CPA Journal, February 201...
The CPA Journal
Listen in to this interview between CPAacademy.org founder, Scott Zarret, and Roger Knecht of Universal Accounting. You'll hear the story of their personal and professional journeys. Scott and Roger will review choices made and how they are...
Universal Accounting Center
The invention of the system of equations method (i.e., the reciprocal method) was a significant step in the allocation of service department costs to production departments. Compared with the two other methods commonly in use—the direct met...
The CPA Journal
The demands placed on CFOs and their related financial organizations are driven by the many hats that they wear in discharging their responsibilities. As summarized in our prior column, “The Five Hats of the CFO” (October/November), these a...
The CPA Journal
Regulatory and market pressures have led to increased responsibilities for corporate audit committees, as well as greater demand for such members to possess financial expertise. Companies have responded by offering a wider variety of compen...
The CPA Journal
As we enter our 125th year of representing and advocating for CPAs, I can’t help but be struck by the footprint we have made on the profession over multiple generations. From the moment our founder, Charles Waldo Haskins, championed new leg...
The CPA Journal
Although many businesses operate on a fiscal year distinct from the calendar year, some use a distinctive 52/53-week fiscal year. This reporting convention can enhance the comparability of periods and the convenience of reporting timeframes...
The CPA Journal
The proper taxation of “information services” under the New York Sales Tax Law can raise complex and costly issues resulting in difficult audits and even litigation. Three recent tax cases in New York nicely illustrate the painstaking and l...
The CPA Journal
In addition to the human health, remote work environment, and technology challenges presented by the coronavirus (COVID-19) environment, tax practitioners have had to absorb and apply several tax law and related changes in the past two busy...
The CPA Journal
The increasing complexity of business, whether it be from technology or globalization, has placed more responsibilities on an entity’s CFO and financial organization. In addition, these enhanced responsibilities have driven a need for CFOs ...
The CPA Journal
This article reviews the changes made by ASU 2016-16 pertaining to intra-group asset transfers and provides several illustrations seeking to assist CPAs and other accounting professionals in applying the new standard for intra-group asset t...
The CPA Journal
This article examines the initial impact of the adoption of ASU 2016-02 (ASC Topic 842, Leases), which requires lessees to record assets and liabilities for operating leases. Under prior standards, operating lease payments were simply expen...
The CPA Journal
Everyone knows that hacking is a huge problem that typically results in the theft of large amounts of confidential information. But they don’t know a major cause of the problem: many organizations use only software-based procedures instead ...
The CPA Journal
The much-anticipated and -deliberated changes to the accounting for financial instruments ushered in by ASU-2016-13, Financial Instruments–Credit Losses, happened to take effect during an unprecedented economic crisis brought about by the C...
The CPA Journal
Tax departments are always looking for ways to streamline their processes and procedures, and provide greater value-added services to management. Tax analytics and automation technologies present new opportunities to corporate tax departmen...
The CPA Journal
When the entire world shut down because of the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, the accounting profession had to adapt quickly. Not only did many CPA firms have to figure out how to provide services remotely, they also had to ensure that th...
The CPA Journal
FASB, IASB, GASB News provided by Thomson Reuters Checkpoint
The CPA Journal
Cece Leung’s Dear Accountant is an innovative and creative work in accounting. It is both inspiring and entertaining, and provides a smorgasbord of enriching and helpful career journeys of extraordinary people—all of whom are accountants! T...
The CPA Journal
The accounting profession has a long and respectable history, and has made important contributions to business, commerce, and economies for hundreds, if not thousands, of years. The accounting profession can provide a lifetime career to any...
The CPA Journal
It can be hard to know which medical insurance to use during the age of retirement when someone continues working. This is especially true when someone still has health insurance through a longtime employer. Medicare is managed by the Cente...
The CPA Journal
Technology trends can encompass a multitude of different areas, such as data analytics, cybersecurity, robotic process automation, and blockchain. Because these areas have saturated all industries, learning more can promote personal develop...
The CPA Journal
Although CPA mobility laws and regulations have significantly eased the process for CPAs to practice across licensing jurisdictions, recent enforcement reports of the New York Board of Accountancy suggest that at least some CPAs may not rec...
The CPA Journal
Failing to report foreign bank accounts on a Report of Foreign Bank and Financial Accounts (FBAR) form can carry severe financial consequences. The civil penalty for non-willful violations of the FBAR reporting requirement is $10,000. The c...
The CPA Journal
Depending on the company’s financial condition and business strategy, a shareholder-employee may be able to take Reasonable Compensation plus a distribution, just Reasonable Compensation, or neither. What the shareholder-employee can’t do t...
RCReports, Inc.
Corporate fraud has resurfaced in the headlines, troubling those who might have believed the profession had moved past its audit failures of the past decades. Thought leaders throughout the profession are using the current moment to reexami...
The CPA Journal
Many CPA firms are losing more than 25% of their staff each year, which is more than double the national average (Carolyn Kmet, “CPAs: Why They Leave, Where They Go,” Insight, Fall 2018). Shockingly, the direct costs associated with replaci...
The CPA Journal
Bank confirmations have been a valuable source of audit evidence since the dawn of the profession. Like all confirmations, they can be both effective and efficient, but only to the extent the auditor has properly identified and assessed the...
The CPA Journal
Change is in the air for accounting. Many promises have been made about increasing diversity, particularly for Black accountants. But have all the projects, initiatives, and reports lived up to expectations? Or has it been a shell game?
The CPA Journal
There is surprisingly little information available for investors who wish to identify Delaware Statutory Trusts (DSTs) as potential replacement property in their 1031 exchange. Delaware Statutory Trusts have become increasingly popular with...
Accruit
I read with interest the article “Using the Guideline Company Method in Valuing Closely Held Companies,” by Nicholas Mastracchio (CPAJ July/August 2020), and I applaud the authors on their informed methodology. Read comments and the author'...
The CPA Journal
U.S. business owners and their accounting professionals may be surprised to learn about a proposed European legal regime that will have a major impact on global business. Their surprise might turn to shock when they learn that businesses th...
The CPA Journal
PCAOB, GASB, and AICPA News provided by Thomson Reuters Checkpoint
The CPA Journal
Whether you are an introvert or extrovert, one thing is certain - public speaking is an important skill to build. This, of course, is no secret. After all, almost every profession requires it.
Misty Megia LLC
FREE
In Corporate Law and the Theory of the Firm, author Wm. Dennis Huber, an attorney and CPA with graduate degrees in economics and finance, challenges decades of judicial opinions, as well as accounting, economic, and legal research by provid...
The CPA Journal
Since January 1, 2019, the tax rules for divorce instruments fall under dramatically new rules included in the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA) of 2017. These law changes were largely made as a result of tax underreporting, meaning that the tax...
The CPA Journal
When the right set of circumstances presents itself, there may be no simpler way to defer, reduce, or completely eliminate long-term capital gains taxes when selling real estate, businesses, or certain other appreciated assets than a struct...
The CPA Journal
A recent case serves as a convenient reminder for 2020 tax return elections. In Gurpreet S. Padda, et al. v. Comm’r (TCM 2020-154), a physician met the test for significant participation activities with respect to several restaurants and a ...
The CPA Journal
The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA) of 2017 modified several aspects of corporate income tax rules, including a key change to the treatment on foreign-generated earnings. Preliminary results from the authors’ investigation suggest the TCJA was...
The CPA Journal
There is still time in the final quarter of 2021 for tax professionals to advise taxpayers to take actions that can favorably impact tax liability for the full year and help to get ready for 2022. The American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 (ARPA)...
The CPA Journal
The rules for required minimum distributions (RMD) can be challenging to navigate. New regulations that update the life expectancy tables to be used add another layer of complexity. The switch to those new tables can be simple for some taxp...
The CPA Journal
CPAs need to be aware of current developments in key states in order to properly advise companies doing business in multiple jurisdictions. This article will provide an overview of some recent developments in the jurisdictions of District o...
The CPA Journal
Tax departments are always looking for ways to streamline their processes and procedures, and provide greater value-added services to management. Tax analytics and automation technologies present new opportunities to corporate tax departmen...
The CPA Journal
The COVID-19 pandemic has wreaked havoc on the United States, not just in terms of lives lost, but also in terms of the country’s ability to maintain a fully operational economy.
The CPA Journal
FASB News and IASB News provided by Thomson Reuters Checkpoint
The CPA Journal
If a taxpayer lacks documentation to support items on a tax return, preparers may use estimates, following an approach long known as the “Cohan rule.” Although the rule remains useful for tax preparers, it is limited, and its application va...
The CPA Journal
CPAs continued to deal with a global pandemic during the 2021 tax season, requiring many tax practitioners to work from home, often while balancing other responsibilities. In addition to the persistent coronavirus (COVID-19) environment, ta...
The CPA Journal
Bitcoin was introduced to the world under a cloud of mystery in January 2009. A white paper, Bitcoin: A Peer-to-Peer Electronic Cash System, published in 2008 under the pseudonym of Satoshi Nakamoto, outlined the concept; to date, the autho...
The CPA Journal
Generation Z, like the millennial generation before it, is pessimistic about careers, life in general, and the world around it. However, it shares a deep concern for the environment and a desire to serve a higher purpose. Sustainability ini...
The CPA Journal
Financial fraud represents a serious threat to financial markets, and it has long been noted that whistleblowing can be an important deterrent to fraud. Because of their positions within corporations, internal auditors are uniquely position...
The CPA Journal
Picture this… you just finalized the writing of your speech, but now, it’s time to start practicing the delivery! Translating your written words into spoken ones requires more than simply reading the words off the page. Your writing is an ...
Misty Megia LLC
FREE
Not very long ago, the word robot conjured a vision of a human-like mechanical being moving around and completing tasks. Then robots moved into the manufacturing area as arms and tools. Now robots are moving into the office. Organizations c...
The CPA Journal
Tax season is around the corner. If you don't have a written data security plan (or if you have one and haven't recently reviewed it), today is the day to start it. In these articles, we will walk you step-by-step through the process. The...
Woodard
Although the last year has spurred hardships for those in the accounting profession, the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic has presented a promising opportunity for future generations of accountants—a chance to become enriched in accounting p...
The CPA Journal
In a recent webinar, Joe Woodard asked attendees, "Which of the following operational areas is your biggest challenge - the area you most need to streamline? More than half of them selected processes and workflows as their biggest pain poin...
Woodard
On November 4, 2021, OSHA issued the long-awaited Emergency Temporary Standard (“ETS”), detailing President Biden’s COVID-19 vaccine-or-testing mandate for most large employers (with 100 or more employees).
Greenwald Doherty LLP
FREE
Although many investors in cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin have witnessed great gains in the past year, values have also fluctuated dramatically in short order. Whether Bitcoin and other virtual currencies can retain their value over time is ...
The CPA Journal
PART 2 - Lifetime Learning Credit The Lifetime Learning Credit (LLC) and the American Opportunity Credit (AOC) offer significant tax savings for education expenses. This second article in a two-part series for parents of college students e...
The CPA Journal
From a sales tax compliance perspective, the past few years have been a roller-coaster ride for companies with customers in Kansas but no physical presence in the Sunflower State. Exactly who needed to register for sales tax hasn’t always b...
Avalara
FREE
Tax season is around the corner. If you don't have a written data security plan (or if you have one and haven't recently reviewed it), today is the day to start it. In these articles, we will walk you step-by-step through the process. The...
Woodard
PART 1 - American Opportunity Credit The American Opportunity Credit (AOC) and the Lifetime Learning Credit (LLC) have been topics of discussion for their utility in helping to fund college education expenses. This article is the first of ...
The CPA Journal
According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics Occupational Outlook Handbook, there were more than 1.4 million accountants and auditors in 2019 (https://bit.ly/3DYhhSC). Based on the National Association of State Boards of Accountancy (NA...
The CPA Journal
The accounting profession must be understanding and sensitive to the changing landscape of diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) in the workplace. Frankly, we can—as individuals and as firms—do more. We can be proactive about advancing the...
The CPA Journal
The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) has strict requirements that tax preparers must meet to remain compliant. They must create and implement a data security plan that ensures consumer information confidentiality and security, select service ...
Woodard
There are a number of misconceptions out there concerning the eligibility of expenses incurred in the development of internal use software for the R&D tax credit. These include a belief that internal use software development doesn’t qualif...
Tri-Merit Specialty Tax Professionals
Tax season is around the corner. If you don't have a written data security plan (or if you have one and haven't recently reviewed it), today is the day to start it. In these articles, we will walk you step-by-step through the process. The...
Woodard
Tax season is around the corner. If you don't have a written data security plan (or if you have one and haven't recently reviewed it), today is the day to start it. In these articles, we will walk you step-by-step through the process. The...
Woodard
Tax season is around the corner. If you don't have a written data security plan (or if you have one and haven't recently reviewed it), today is the day to start it. In these articles, we will walk you step-by-step through the process. The...
Woodard
Just how big of an issue is S Corp. officer compensation under reporting? Big would be an understatement. The most recent estimate (TY 2011-2013) has S Corp. owners underreporting compensation by $24 billion per year, twice as much as ten y...
RCReports, Inc.
Since 2006, U.S. tax code allows contractors building energy efficient residences to claim the 45L tax credit. The process is a bit time-consuming for accountants and CPAs, and there are multiple steps to claim the $2,000 per home or “dwell...
Tri-Merit Specialty Tax Professionals
FREE
It has been about seven or eight years since we last had an S Corp Reasonable Compensation challenge come out of the tax courts. In the author’s humble opinion, that’s because there is very little left for taxpayers to test out in court. Mo...
RCReports, Inc.
After the last tax season ended, it was disheartening to see so many practitioners express on social media that they were at their wits end with client response times. On #TaxTwitter, one poll indicated that many wanted to fire all their cl...
Woodard
We recently polled 993 CPAs, EA’s, and other tax professionals to find out if they could recognize fact from fiction as it applies to the IRS’s guidance on how to determine reasonable compensation. 81% believed the fiction. Congratulations ...
RCReports, Inc.
For two decades the IRS has been preparing an assault on reasonable compensation for S Corporations. Their arsenal is now fully stocked. In it there’s everything from commonsense tools to obscure memos. Get ready. Arm yourself with facts an...
RCReports, Inc.
Over the last decade the IRS has steadily and methodically tackled the compliance hassle that is reasonable compensation. According to an exhaustive 2009 GAO Report, S Corps were under-reporting shareholder compensation by more than $23 bil...
RCReports, Inc.
“The only reason for time is so that everything doesn’t happen at once.” Albert Einstein Use time to your advantage! Here’s how one RCReports subscriber brought every S Corp he worked with into Reasonable Compensation compliance in three e...
RCReports, Inc.
An unexpected side effect of the COVID- 19 pandemic might benefit CPAs. Experts predict we will see lower-cost continuing education as the supply of online content increases-- something that the profession has badly needed for far too long.
CPAacademy.org
FREE
The IRS usually wins when it challenges an S Corp.’s Reasonable Compensation in court. Over the years there have been in the neighborhood of 25 to 30 such cases. The IRS has come out on top in all except one: The Davis Case. What made Davis...
RCReports, Inc.
In a recent memorandum to its examiners and appeals agents, the IRS lays out steps to keep Reasonable Compensation challenges out of Tax Court. Great, you say, nobody wants to go to court! Not so fast. The option of filing a petition in T...
RCReports, Inc.
FREE
1099 or W-2? That’s the number one question Jack receives at RCReports. Read on to find out more.
RCReports, Inc.
FREE
Stress testing a reasonable compensation figure is simple. The courts have listed the factors they consider when determining whether a reasonable compensation figure is indeed reasonable. We can use those factors to “stress test” any reason...
RCReports, Inc.
FREE