“All politics is local” – Thomas “Tip” O'Neill – former Speaker of the HouseThat is exactly why we are here in DC this week at the AICPA Spring Council meeting. The MACPA works with the AICPA to make sure our voices are heard by our Maryland delegation of Congress and to magnify and focus this voice at the national level.
The issues we are tackling this year are as follows:
- Tax Strategy Patents – Support S 139
- Tax Due Dates (aka workload compression) S 845 Tax Return Due Date Simplification and Modernization Act of 2011
- Tax Simplification – An ongoing initiative by the Profession to simplify and make taxes fairer to all
- Mobile Workforce – HR 1864 Stopping the unnecessary taxation of temporary work out of state
This year has been a year of unprecedented federal legislation and unprecedented advocacy by the AICPA and us. Many have already forgotten the intense advocacy we have done throughout the year including the following successes:
- IRS tax preparer registration (PTIN). There has been some major progress here. The IRS announced with Notice 2011-6 that non-signers in CPA firms will be exempt from test and CE requirements. See our post over at CPA Success for details.
- Business 1099 requirement from the Health Care Act of 2010. The CPA Profession led efforts to repeal this onerous reporting requiurement which was signed by President Obama on April 14, 2011. We actually got both the full 1099 requirement and the rental real estate requirement repealed. (See our earlier post here.)
- Monitoring of the regulation process of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Financial Protection Act. We had five major successes in stopping unnecessary and onerous provisions, but there are more than 500 rules and regulations expected in the next few years that could adversely affect CPAs. See our post, 5 things that almost happened with Dodd-Frank.
- FTC “red flags” mandated identity theft policies for small business and non-profits. CPAs in practice were granted relief by year-end (see our post at CPA Success), but small businesses and non-profits (like the MACPA) will still have to comply by Dec. 31, 2010. Here is a sample policy to get you started (courtesy of the AICPA) and FTC resources.
Your MACPA Council and Executive Committee along with our federal keypersons will be meeting with our Congressional representatives to ask for their help on these issue critical to CPAs.
Background & resources on our Federal Agenda:
- Are you in violation of a tax patent?
- Score! CPAs help upset the 1099 rule
- Who's Looking Out For You at the Federal Level
- See our SlideShare presentation from our town hall / professional issues updates.
- See a brief video clip of the “new math” consequences of legislation and regulation.