Recent spear phishing emails are masquerading as messages from the IRS tax return preparation software. To help practitioners identify and address spear phishing threats, the IRS Stakeholder Liaison is conducting two briefings the week of March 28 to show tax professionals what some of the most recent scam emails look like.

Approximately 44% of Pennsylvanians (about 2.1 million residents) have no access to an employer-sponsored retirement plan. Legislation now in the Pennsylvania House Commerce Committee would establish the Keystone Saves Program. Through the program, the state would embark on an auto-enrollment payroll deduction IRA.

This Nov. 2, Pennsylvania voters will go to the polls to elect several judges. It’s no secret that these municipal election years tend to lack the luster of other years, but don’t fall into that sense of complacency. The decisions made during these elections will have resounding public policy impacts for years to come.

The PICPA State Tax Steering Committee and their colleagues at the New Jersey Society of Certified Public Accountants recently met to tighten the connections between the two organizations and to work collaboratively to uncover and resolve potential cross-state tax issues.

This year, we experienced a political unicorn in Harrisburg. Not only were the 2021-2022 state budget negotiations relatively painless, but also everything was voted on in an expedient fashion and the budget was wrapped well before the start of the new fiscal year on July 1. Adding to the overall ease of the process – and probably another political unicorn – was the state’s revenue surplus and unused funds received from the federal government for COVID relief.