I had difficulty coming up with a topic for this week's column until I received the CPA Insider, dated May 28, 2002, and read one of its tax headlines, which linked to the story on
The headline read "Tax Matters: Economic Stimulus Bill Enacted." That's right. On May 28th, CPA2Biz is headlining in its e-mail newsletter legislation that was enacted way back on March 9, 2002. And what is also striking is the fact that the article doesn't give comprehensive coverage of the tax provisions. It only gives a cursory explanation of the major provisions. Who's minding the store there and what do they know about the news needs of CPAs? Is that an outrageous question? I don't think so.
Interestingly, this issuance of the newsletter closely follows the AICPA Spring Council, at which a CPA2Biz executive indicated that CPA2Biz needs another $10 to $15 million dollars of additional funding.
Its has been no secret that I have never been a fan of CPA2Biz. The only purpose it seems to have served so far seems to be a very expensive unneeded distribution channel for AICPA products.
In many ways CPA2Biz reminds me more and more of the global credential efforts by the AICPA leadership--a very costly initiative that many AICPA members in public practice saw as totally useless. But, they came to that conclusion months, if not years, before the AICPA leadership recognized that fact.
It seems to be no different here. The AICPA and CPA2Biz leaderships haven't quite figured it out yet or won't publicly admit that CPA2Biz has become a dismal failure. Once they do, I assume they will announce it as a late-breaking news headline and write a cursory explanation of the demise of CPA2Biz. Watch for that e-mail. It won't be hard to recognize as it will probably appear with a number of ads.
