Accounting education

There is this guy I see on the train Monday to Friday going to work. He must weigh at least 450 pounds, give or take a kilo. Where do you think he works? No, change that, what kind of store do you think he owns? You’re right. It’s a sandwich/pastry shop.Now plunking a fellow like that down into handling food all day doesn’t seem very rational but let’s look at it from the other end of the telescope. I haven’t decided yet what this has to do with financial planning but it certainly will have something to do with wealth accumulation. Besides, my wife tells me my columns are getting boring because they’re all about the same subjects: financial planning, estate planning, retirement planning. Sorry, that’s what I do.

Companies don’t believe broad-based tax reform is coming anytime soon, though they do think that the change of control in Congress will have a significant impact on tax policy, according to a survey conducted by a Washington law firm.

A provision in the president's budget proposals could shelter 529 college-savings plans from being counted in determining federal student financial aid.

CPA partners believe compensation is the driving force behind a new recruit’s decision to join and stay with a firm -- but a new study says that’s not necessarily the case.

Tuition paid for a school focused on treating learning disabilities can be classified as a medical expense, according to a private letter ruling from the Internal Revenue Service.Like other deductible medical expenses, the original ruling (PLR 2005-21003) found that the cost of tuition is deductible only to the extent that medical expenses for the year cumulatively exceed 7.5 percent of a taxpayer's adjusted gross income.

In 2006, the U.S. personal savings rate hit its lowest level since the Great Depression, according to the Commerce Department.The agency said that the country’s savings rate for all of 2006 was a negative 1 percent -- meaning that not only did people spend all the money they earned throughout the year, but that they also dipped into savings, or increased borrowing to finance purchases.

I was at a children’s store the other day to buy a birthday present for one of my grandchildren (I only give clothes, no toys) and the manager presented me with the offer of a sizeable discount if I opened a credit card. It was one I couldn’t refuse but should have. So I did. I later learned that the card was issued after a credit report was pulled. I didn’t give it any thought until I just happened to check my credit report (as I do annually) to see what, if anything, it was saying. Now, I wasn’t refused that credit card but I did find a slew of mistakes on the report I reviewed, so much so that I decided to check into this rather carefully.First of all, I found that according to a study by the U.S. Public Interest Research Group, 25 percent of the population has at least one mistake on their credit report. I’m obviously now in that group. I began to wonder how such mistakes could cost people in the way of rejected credit, and even jobs.

A new industry group is looking to make inroads in building support for its policy positions in Washington.Launched on Tuesday, the Center for Audit Quality will focus on topics such as auditor protection from lawsuits, the Sarbanes-Oxley Act and how companies report financial information.

The American Institute of CPAs and the Canadian Institute of Chartered Accountants are gearing an expanded version of their 2003 Privacy Framework towards a broader business audience.

Teams of accounting students from 22 colleges have accepted an invitation to participate in the inaugural KPMG National Audit Case Competition.

In today's financial services landscape, it is becoming more important for accountants to evaluate the health of their current practices and to implement certain necessary changes to remain competitive. With consolidation happening almost on a weekly basis, financial services firms are becoming the one-stop shop for clients. And if you poll your clients, you'll find out that that's exactly what they want - one trusted place to have all of their financial matters attended to.Accountants are also seeing pressure from the proliferation of low-cost accounting software, companies that are giving away tax preparation services for free or at an extremely low cost, and the fact that the Internet is providing clients access to information that was once the private domain of accountants.

TSCPA FINANCIAL EDUCATION WEB SITE GARNERS AWARDThe Texas Society of CPAs received an Award of Excellence in the 2007 Associations Advance America Awards competition. The TSCPA received the award for its consumer financial education Web site, www.valueyourmoney.org. The site gives users access to free personal finance information for 11 specific stages in life, such as high school, couples and marriage, life crises, and retirement and estate planning. Resources available online include worksheets, quizzes, podcasts, a personal finance calendar, and materials for companies to use in educating employees about money matters.

Everybody and his dog seem to have checked in with their so-called golden rules for a successful retirement. In fact, some have five key rules; some have 15. If you added all of them up, you would probably find yourself with 65 different rules, a bit much.However, Ron Roberts, founder and president of Roberts Retirement Group based in Jackson, Calif., has come up with an even dozen, 12 if you will, that are most enticing.

The Virginia Society of CPAs announced that its president and chief executive, Thomas M. Berry Jr., will retire at the end of April. He has led the organization for the past 30 years.The society’s board of directors has named VSCPA executive vice president Stephanie R. Peters as the 8,100-member group’s next president and chief executive. She has worked at the VSCPA for nearly a decade.

So, what makes a top-notch advisor? It looks as though MainStay Investments may have given us the answer.

The U.S. Supreme Court will allow a lower court ruling to stand -- finding that International Business Machines Corp. did not commit age discrimination when it changed its pension coverage in the late 1990s.While the ruling paves the final legal road for IBM’s switch to a cash-balance pension plan from a defined-benefit pension, regardless, the company announced a year ago that it would eliminate the cash-balance plan as of Jan. 1, 2008, making enhancements to its 401(k) plan instead.

At times, taxing authorities give out surprising beneficial rulings. The only problem is, you must ask for the ruling. For example, there was my October 24, 2006, WebCPA column about an advisory opinion issued by the New York State Department of Taxation and Finance.It answered the following question: Are you taxed as a New York resident if you move into a New York nursing home for care because you are incompetent and in need of constant medical supervision? According to the opinion, the individual, lacking intent to move, remained a resident of Florida despite the move to a New York nursing home for care.

Wolters Kluwer business CCH announced that Mike Sabbatis has been named to the newly-created position of president for CCH Tax and Accounting U.S.

I just returned from Las Vegas where I attended the AICPA personal financial planning conference and where I also made an opening day presentation to a packed house awarding the Institute the Special Award of Excellence from CPA Wealth Provider. In 2006, the AICPA launched a nationwide effort to encourage Americans ages 25 to 34 to “feed the pig” as a key step toward building a solid financial future for themselves and their families.Actually, Feed the Pig is a national multi-media public-service announcement campaign sponsored by the Institute and the Ad Council. Featuring Benjamin Bankes, a smartly dressed, adult-size pig who evokes memories of the piggy bank, the campaign delivers a strong message about the importance and benefits of savings. It is a noteworthy effort and I decided to put it to the test not for 25-to-34-year -olds but rather for the 6-to-11 mob, my grandchildren.

What kind of company processes payroll and credit card and check payments, and offers banking services and account aggregation? Increasingly, the answer is an accounting software company.