News

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.

It has been five years since the U.S. Supreme Court heard South Dakota v. Wayfair. The court decided on June 21, 2018, that states could tax purchases made from out-of-state sellers, even if the seller does not have a physical presence in the taxing state. Much of what has happened in state tax law since then has been based on that decision.

The AICPA and the National Association of State Boards of Accountancy (NASBA) are working together to develop an integrated education and experience program for students who need a path to the 150 credit hours required for CPA licensure. The Experience, Learn and Earn program (ELE) will combine meaningful online study integrated with early work experience.

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.

Measure heads to Senate, where passage is virtually certain

The debt-limit deal would rein in spending on some federal government services but barely dents the roughly $20 trillion in combined budget deficits projected over the next decade.

After several weeks of tense negotiations, President Joe Biden and House Republicans have reached an agreement in principle to address the debt limit and cap spending. The drama is by no means over. Congressional leaders in both parties have to convince enough of their members to vote for the agreement, which contains provisions that lawmakers on each side of the aisle don’t support.

After a few days of speculation about the debt ceiling agreement between President Joe Biden and House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, we finally have the details. The text of the bill—just 99 pages long—was released on Sunday and is already generating conversation.

The IRS is facing substantial cuts to funds meant to rebuild its workforce and modernize its legacy IT systems over the next decade, as part of a deal to raise the debt ceiling and avoid a first-ever government default.

A pair of lawmakers proposed bipartisan legislation to streamline the tax filing extension process.

President Joe Biden and House Speaker Kevin McCarthy could not reach an agreement Monday on how to raise the U.S. government's $31.4 trillion debt ceiling with just 10 days before a possible default that could sink the U.S. economy, but vowed to keep talking.

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).