CPA Now Blog Archive

The U.S. House of Representatives is poised to roll out its initial detailed tax plan. With a final push the past few weeks, and a lot of massaging to address some concerns, the first “detailed” look at what tax reform may look like should arrive any day now.

There may have been some concern about the Trump administration's enforcement efforts regarding the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, but several Department of Justice officials have made it clear that the DOJ will continue to make FCPA a priority.

The traditional rules of deferring income and accelerating deductions to minimize taxes can be called into question when tax laws or personal circumstances change. This year may be even more complicated considering the tax law proposals being discussed are much more significant than usual.

Maher Duessel has been committed to fostering a culture of diversity. Recently, the firm announce its participation in PICPA’s Diversity and Inclusion pilot program for the western region of Pennsylvania. Find out more about the program.

Many large firms have departments dedicated to protecting them from a security breach or hackers. Small practitioners don’t have as much time or as many resources to dedicate to cybersecurity, but that doesn’t mean they shouldn’t be concerned.

Do you understand how Russian entities spread their influence through Facebook advertising? At the PICPA, we understand. In fact, we employ some of the same tactics.

Since the Pennsylvania Department of Revenue implemented the electronic statement of accounts within its e-TIDES system last year, the department has produced almost 29,000 electronic account statements.

Do you want to get involved with the PICPA but aren’t sure what’s expected of you? Relax. It’s not complicated at all.

To keep taxes low on retirement income, try to permanently reduce your marginal income tax bracket. One way to do this is by implementing a partial systematic Roth IRA conversion.

We are more than 80 days into the 2017-2018 fiscal year, and Pennsylvania still does not have a complete budget. Probably what is most surprising is how we got here.

Long-awaited CPE and work-experience licensing regulations proposed by the Pennsylvania State Board of Accountancy (SBOA) were published in The Pennsylvania Bulletin. Find out what they are and when they go into effect.

In the global economy, businesses often conduct transactions with controlled entities located outside of their state’s or country’s borders. Determining how profit from these transactions is divvied up among various controlled parties has become a focal point for many tax authorities. Transfer pricing principles are intended to avoid an artificial shifting of profits between tax jurisdictions, but the concept often gets misconstrued in the media.

Investors with highly appreciated stock positions often try to diversify out of their positions over time, but for many reasons they almost always retain a significant portion of their concentrated position that’s left unhedged. It remains a major risk exposure relative to their net worth, and is riskier than most investors realize.

Pennsylvania CPAs completed a brief PICPA survey on how they think the state should help close its $3 billion structural deficit. The results highlight the complexity of the issue the state is currently facing.

The news is full of stories about senior citizens being victimized by unscrupulous people stealing their money, investments, or other valuable assets. Here are a couple of examples of what can happen to our elderly friends and family if nobody is paying attention.

For many business owners, a significant amount of their personal net worth is tied up in the equity ownership of the business. So when a divorce occurs, a critical question quickly arises: “How much is the business worth for the express purpose of measuring the marital property value?”

CPAs help others see the “story” being told by financial information, whether it be a board of directors or an organization's staff. However, the message is delivered differently based on the audience. So try to keep the following points in mind when presenting financial information to a group.

The AICPA recently updated the System and Organization Controls (SOC) reporting suite of services. This blog post provides an overview of the SOC for Cybersecurity reporting framework, and highlights some of the key differences between the SOC for Cybersecurity and SOC 2 reports.

Nonprofits can be particularly vulnerable when it comes to fraud and theft. In smaller not-for-profits, there just may not be enough hands to manage day-to-day functions. And not enough hands can lead to error or mischief.

Significant changes are taking place in our profession, including demographic shifts, an ever-changing business environment, technological advancements, as well as demands on people’s time. With this in mind, PICPA leadership evaluated our bylaws and recommended that changes be made to ensure continued relevance and viability.