News

The AICPA and over 50 affiliated organizations recommended in a letter to Treasury's Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) that the agency extend the effective date for the beneficial ownership information (BOI) reporting requirement by one year to give the millions of affected businesses time to learn about the new and complex rules. The letter asked that the scope of the one-year deadline delay include not only new entities created in 2024, but all entities created thereafter and all entities making updates or corrections to their original filings.

The IRS will continue its pursuit of money owed to the U.S. government by sending letters to about 150 U.S. subsidiaries of foreign corporations, reminding them of their tax obligations; initiating audits of 60 large corporations; and proceeding with its investigations of high-wealth individuals who do not pay their taxes, IRS Commissioner Danny Werfel said Thursday.

The Internal Revenue Service announced tax relief for individuals and businesses affected by the terrorist attacks in the State of Israel. These taxpayers now have until Oct. 7, 2024, to file various federal returns, make tax payments and perform other time-sensitive tax-related actions. In Notice 2023-71PDF, the IRS provided relief to certain taxpayers who, due to the terrorist attacks, may be unable to meet a tax-filing or tax-payment obligation, or may be unable to perform other time-sensitive tax-related actions. The IRS will continue to monitor events and may provide additional relief.

Treasury's Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) issued a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) on Wednesday that would extend the deadline for companies created or registered in 2024 to file their first beneficial ownership information (BOI) reports. The NPRM (RIN 1506-AB62) would provide 90 days for those companies to file initial reports rather than the original deadline of 30 days from the earlier of the date on which the company receives actual notice that its creation or registration has become effective or the date on which the secretary of state first provides public notice that the company has been created or registered.

Efforts to grow and diversify the pipeline of accounting talent have been buoyed by the introduction of legislation that would add accounting to grades K–12 science, technology, engineering, and mathematics education programs, better known as STEM.

Practitioners preparing for the new AICPA quality management (QM) standards now have access to a practice aid designed to help their cause. The free practice aid, Establishing and Maintaining a System of Quality Management for a CPA Firm's Accounting and Auditing Practice, is available in versions for sole practitioners and for small- and medium-sized firms.

Abuse of the employee retention credit (ERC) by aggressive promoters who make questionable promises has pushed Treasury to renew the call for the regulation of paid tax return preparers, an action that has the AICPA's support.

To protect taxpayers from scams, the IRS has ordered an immediate stop to new Employee Retention Credit processing amid a surge of questionable claims, concerns from tax professionals, and aggressive marketing to ineligible applicants, posing unacceptable risk to businesses and the tax system.

On August 30, the Biden administration issued a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking from the Department of Labor to extend overtime pay eligibility to more than 3 million workers. The initiative comes following a similar attempt by the Obama administration over eight years ago to revise overtime eligibility regulations under the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA). Under the new proposal, employers would be required to provide time-and-a-half pay for eligible workers who work beyond 40 hours per week. The previous threshold for this requirement set in 2019 by the Trump administration—$35,568—would be increased to $55,000.

Perhaps the biggest development in employment law in 2023 is the federal government’s proposal to ban noncompete clauses. The federal government’s actions coincide with, or in some instances have prompted some states to restrict or outright ban noncompete agreements in their entirety.

The American Institute of CPAs (AICPA) and National Association of State Boards of Accountancy (NASBA) will launch an innovative post-graduate program this fall in collaboration with the Tulane School of Professional Advancement (SoPA). The program blends rigorous online learning with on-the-job professional experience for college accounting graduates, offering a less costly and more flexible way to complete the 150-hour course credit requirement to become a licensed CPA.

The AICPA has formed an advisory group of accounting stakeholders that will help to shape strategy to address the profession's talent shortage.

The 150-hour education requirement for CPA licensure has become a target for some who see it as an easy way to ease the talent pipeline issues facing the profession.

With just minutes left in the 2023 Connecticut legislative session, Connecticut officially joined the first states to adopt the 30-month CPA Exam testing window recommended by NASBA.

The American Institute of CPAs (AICPA) joined a coalition of organizations who have come together to make taxpayers and practitioners aware of the new Beneficial Ownership Information (BOI) reporting requirement. BOI is an anti-money laundering initiative enacted through the Corporate Transparency Act (CTA) in 2021, which mandates that BOI information is reported to the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN).

In response to feedback submitted through the exposure draft, NASBA has announced that it will adopt an increased testing window of 30 months.

Across the board, stakeholders charged with promoting and protecting the accounting profession are searching for solutions to a talent acquisition issue that isn't unique to the profession.

Sen. Jack Reed of Rhode Island and two other Senate Democrats have filed legislation that would establish new SEC registration triggers for certain large private companies.

A U.S. accounting firm is not prohibited by a White House executive order regarding U.S. sanctions against Russia from providing tax advisory and preparation services to the U.S. subsidiary of a Russian company in certain scenarios, according to guidance issued Thursday by Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC).

As part of ongoing efforts to provide additional help for people during this period, the IRS announced today the suspension of more than a dozen additional letters, including the mailing of automated collection notices normally issued when a taxpayer owes additional tax, and the IRS has no record of a taxpayer filing a tax return.