The National Conference of CPA Practitioners held a quarterly meeting in Washington to meet with various senators and representatives as well as the Internal Revenue Service, and talk about tax policy.
"We got a lot of positive feedback from our meeting this year," said Neil H. Fishman, a principal with Fishman Associates CPAs, in Deerfield Beach, Fla.
He noted that the group met with a number of members of the House Ways and Means Committee, the Senate Small Business Committee and the Senate Finance Committee, including Ways and Means Chairman Charles Rangel, D-N.Y.; Mike McNulty, D-N.Y.; Jim Ramstad, R-Minn.; Joseph Crowley, D-N.Y.; and Paul Ryan, R-Wisc.
At the meeting, held May 14-16, the NCCPAP Tax Committee compiled a list of agenda items it believes are important to CPA practitioners, their clients and the public. They include above-the-line full deductibility of long-term-care insurance premiums, above-the-line deductibility of tax preparer fees with disclosure of the tax preparer identification number, and a change in the extension deadline for Forms 1065 and 1041 to Sept. 15 from Oct. 15 to avoid overlap with the 1040 extension deadline of Oct. 15.
At the IRS meeting, the IRS revealed that IRS regulations would soon address the date change issue, thereby allowing partners and beneficiaries sufficient time to file a complete and timely extended return for the 1040. Several agenda items that were presented and discussed in prior years went on to be enacted, such as the preparer tax identification number and the recent change to Section 121 of the Tax Code on the exclusion from gain from the sale of a principal residence.
