CPA Now Blog Archive

On Jan. 3, 2017, the 201st session of the Pennsylvania General Assembly got under way, beginning what we fully expect to be a challenging and contentious 2017-2018 legislative session.

Ten or 15 years ago, businesses were developing inclusion programs to attract women into the accounting profession. There has been some success: more than 50 percent of accounting grads were women for many years. But those additional young professional women didn’t translate into growth in the number of women holding leadership roles.

Every household should have a “tax permanent file,” a tax equivalent for the documents such as wills and Social Security cards that you secure in a special file or safe deposit box. Much of what needs to be retained in this tax permanent file pertains to basis, or the cost and/or value of items that if sold would be reportable on a tax return.

If this is the year you want to advance in your career or challenge your professional growth, a good book is great place to start. Here are a few suggestions for your 2017 reading list.

Individual retirement accounts (IRAs) were designed to assist taxpayers with opportunities to save for retirement in tax beneficial ways. There are, however, a number of IRS rules governing these accounts, and running afoul of these rules can result in substantial penalties.

Pennsylvania has a tax amnesty program beginning in April 2017. Now, says the Department of Revenue, is a good time for your clients to prepare.

I know I often use my own network of CPAs as a sounding board for technical and business questions. To bring our members this value of interconnectedness, we’ve just launched a new digital option to grow your network: a robust discussion forum platform called PICPA Connect.

Required minimum distributions are the minimum amounts that must be withdrawn annually from a retirement account. If they are not taken from your individual retirement account in a given year, any excess accumulation will result in an additional tax. Time is running out if you are required to make a withdrawal this year.

As the leadership of CPA firms turns gray, the administrative details of running a firm become less tolerable. As future leaders rise through the ranks, their interest in these tasks tends to wane. The firm administrator is the one who covers the important management tasks that others are unwilling to do.

One of the highest value services that a CPA can provide is to help business decision makers make better decisions. And the science of data analytics is key to helping with decisions that will improve business performance and return on investment

Emerging CPAs should take advantage of their knowledge of the time value of money from the beginning of their careers to maximize their potential retirement savings.

The first year of the CPA biennial continuing education cycle is almost at a close. Have you completed your required 20 CPE credits yet?

With speculation being rampant over what policies a Republican-dominated Washington will bring, there is one issue close to the profession that has a good chance to move forward next year: tax reform.

Pennsylvania House Bill 245 was an extremely important piece of legislation as it protected taxpayers from being double-taxed. The bipartisan bill garnered “yes” support from more than 75 percent of the Senate and the House. But Gov. Tom Wolf unceremoniously vetoed the bill. How could this happen?

The PICPA’s Personal Financial Planning Committee has been addressing the importance of PFP as a growth opportunity for many years. The surge in interest in personal financial planning has inspired new programs at the PICPA.

Donita R. Rudy has spent the past 25 years assisting clients from a variety of industries and business sizes with financial, strategic, and turnaround management services. In this Q&A she explains how crisis management is a process whereby you maintain control when the uncontrollable happens.

Unplanned distributions from traditional individual retirement accounts (IRAs) can have a serious unanticipated tax consequence. From Social Security benefits to health care costs, a lot can be affected by unchecked distributions.

Many CPAs in personal financial planning or forensic accounting can share war stories about clients or neighbors who have been taken advantage of, not only by strangers but also by family and friends. CPAs are in a position to spot potential fraud perpetrated on their clients, and the PICPA is developing resources to help identify early warning signs of elder fraud.

Most of us know that financial abuse of elders is a problem. Maybe you've witnessed it among your own family or friends. But just how big a problem is it? Try $36 billion per year.

The vast amount of analytical work performed in today’s business environments is through the use of rudimentary spreadsheets that typically focus on some level of retrospective review of budget to actual performance. Still, business owners can manage three common areas of concern through some relatively simple data analysis.