The Latest

Times have changed! It is impossible to focus on every danger and every opportunity. Also, it is not enough to identify issues, which is often all that happens at traditional partner retreats; you must also address those issues if you expect to grow. Some of the top issues in firms today are succession, workflow, lack of integrated technology, lack of accountability, and lack of growth.

As the economy slowly inches back toward a recovery of sorts, several of the nation's top broker-dealers and financial services firms are revving their recruiting engines and driving them toward the CPA market in hopes of increasing their partnerships with accounting firms and practitioners.

November

Approval of a resolution to support the creation of a GAAP model for private companies and a separate standards board, a revamp of the CPA Vision project and the election of the new 2010-2011 chairman highlighted the Fall Meeting of Council of the American Institute of CPAs, here.

This month the Illinois CPA Society is launching a new program, "Generating Results from Your Generation Y Staff ," that is geared to help young accountants understand how to deliver a better return on investment for their firm through bridging the expectation gap and better communication between themselves and their senior partners - especially during busy season.

Continued growth in the do-it-yourself tax prep market, ongoing federal and state e-filing mandates and the Internal Revenue Service's discontinuation of a debt indicator to facilitate refund anticipation loans will affect both preparers and their software providers during next year's filing season.

There are certain things that I've resigned myself to believing will never happen in my lifetime. One is my brother-in-law repaying the money he has owed me for 13 years. The other would find me suddenly enjoying lower taxes in New York State. For good measure, you can also add to that list the day my children stop requesting money.

New York - The financial firms that suffered the greatest stock-price declines during the economic crisis tended to be those with the highest proportion of independent directors, according to a new study.

California

In June we discussed the proposed Schedule UTP and instructions for reporting uncertain tax positions. The Internal Revenue Service received a number of comments on those proposals and, on Sept. 24, 2010, issued a final Schedule UTP and related materials for the 2010 year in Announcements 2010-75 and 2010-76. The final version makes a number of significant changes to the requirements in response to the input received.