Pub. 1 2019 Issue 4

J U L Y / A U G U S T 2 0 1 9 6 nebraska cpas PRESIDENT’S MESSAGE BY JONI SUNDQUIST, President & Executive Director, Nebraska Society of CPAs SOCIETY LEADERS MAKE THE DIFFERENCE Several members of the Nebraska Society of CPAs visited the offices of Nebraska lawmakers inWashington, D.C., this past May to discuss the accounting profession’s advocacy agenda. The NebraskaCPAs who attended theAmerican Institute of CPAs (AICPA) Spring Meeting of Council included Society Chairman Patrick Meyer of HBE LLP, Societ y Chairman-Elect Shari Munro of Frankel Zacharia LLC, and Society Past Chairman and AICPA Council representative Ryan Parker of Endicott Clay Products Co. The visits to Capitol Hill were a highlight of the AICPA meeting. Making these personal visits with our elected officials and their staff on Capitol Hill is one of the best ways to educate them about the issues important to the accounting profession and the taxpayers they represent. At the top of the profession’s list of issues are modernizing the Internal Revenue Se r v ice’s ( IRS’) t axpaye r se r v ices, changing the trigger that allows the IRS to grant deadline extensions when natural disasters occur, addressing the growing importance of taxation of the digital economy, and encouraging passage of a congressional resolution relating to the fiscal state of the nation. A Practitioner Services Division within the IRS is one of the best ways to improve taxpayer services, we told lawmakers. It would help tax preparers solve their clients’ tax issues by consolidating existing IRS units in the new division. Currently, the programs are spread throughout the IRS and the operating systems for the programs do not easily communicate or integrate, or even have access to the same taxpayer information. The Taxpayer First Act of 2019 has been signed by President Trump and will soon be implemented. That bill contains many provisions that help improve IRS operations and services to taxpayers, but the bill does not include the formation of a Practitioner Services Division. Our efforts on Capitol Hill to encourage the administrative creation of the Practitioner Services Division has raised awareness and we will keep the effort moving. As the IRS begins to move into a new era of modernizing its practices, policies, and systems, we believe that tax professionals should have the tools to aid taxpayers in successfully adhering to the updated tax code. While this bill generally moves the IRS in the right direction, there’s more to be done, and the Nebraska Society of CPAs will continue to advocate for tax preparers and IRS efficiency. Congress can also help taxpayers by enacting legislation that would give the IRS the authority to postpone deadlines when a national disaster is declared by a state’s governor, which often occurs days before the disaster occurs, rather than waiting for a federal disaster declaration, the CPAs said. The Nebraska Society of CPAs and the AICPA have long worked for a set of permanent disaster relief tax provisions, but enactment of this new legislation would provide more timely assistance and certainty to tax preparers and taxpayers. We also asked lawmakers to support a congressional fiscal state of the nation resolution calling for the Government Accountability Office (GAO) Comptroller General to make a presentation to a joint session of the House and Senate Budget Committees on theGAO’s auditor’s report of the U.S. government’s financial statements. In addition, we advocated for sound tax policy as we discussed the complex and unique tax challenges presented to governments and tax authorities around the world by the advancement of technology and the digital economy. CPA Evolution The AICPA Spring Council meeting also focused on the AICPA-NASBA CPA Evolution initiative. A top strategic priority, CPA Evolution aims to reimagine initial CPA licensure requirements to build a future-ready profession where CPAs have NESCPA Nebraska Governmental Accounting and Auditing Committee NESCPA Not-For-Profit Committee