NYSSCPA Members in the News
John Lieberman (Manhattan/Bronx)
Maximize Your Tax Refund by Exploring Credits
NY1 News
If you are looking to beef up your tax refund, in this Money Matters report, financial empowerment coach Ash Exantus and CPA John Lieberman explain how you can take advantage of every credit you're entitled to - because that's money in your pocket.
Other Accounting and Financial News Stories
The Rationale for CPAs to Establish Their Brand
Accounting Web
You know people talk about you. If you go to the gym and work out with several friends, you’ve heard them size up other gym members across the room. What goes around comes around. People talk about you in a professional context, too, although that probably happens when everyone is fully clothed. What do they say about you? Can you control it? Is This Important? A financial advisor in the Sacramento, California, area was approached by a person who wanted to do business. Curious, the advisor asked, “Why did you pick me?” The fellow explained he asked around. This advisor’s name was the only one he heard mentioned twice.
Certification Paid off for Management Accountants
Accounting Today
The Institute of Management Accountants released its salary survey Thursday, showing that accountants worldwide who earned certification through the Certified Management Accountant program received more in base salary and total compensation than accountants without certification. In the U.S., CMAs earn 31 percent more in median total compensation than professionals without certification ($127,200 vs. $97,000). The median annual total compensation for all respondents in the U.S. is $120,000, up 6.2 percent from last year’s number ($113,000).
Some hope for New York's gas-tax problem
Crain’s New York Business
The Tax Foundation's latest analysis of state gas taxes shows New York with the third-highest and New Jersey with the second-lowest. The only other neighboring states with such a discrepancy are New Jersey and Pennsylvania, which has the nation's highest gas tax. Because of the differences, Pennsylvanians and New Yorkers fill their tanks in New Jersey whenever it's even remotely convenient, sometimes shopping in Jersey or otherwise going out of their way to save $3 to $5 on gas.
The Return of the Inflation Trade
Wall Street Journal
The inflation trade is back on Wall Street, thanks to a recent upturn in U.S. economic data and warming investor sentiment. The 10-year inflation break-even rate, measuring the yield premium on the 10-year U.S. Treasury note over the comparable Treasury inflation-protected security, rose to 1.55% Thursday. That is the highest in nearly two months, reflecting strong demand for TIPS. Widely scrutinized by investors and policy makers as a read on market inflation expectations and the outlook for global growth, the rate hit a seven-year low of 1.2% on Feb. 11, marking the low point of the early 2016 global-growth scare.
Negative Rates and Insurers: Be Afraid
Wall Street Journal
The insurance industry seems to be whistling past the graveyard. It can’t go that much longer without negative interest rates causing a scare, though. In recent earnings calls for three of Europe’s biggest insurers— Allianz, AXA and Zurich Insurance Group—there wasn’t one mention of negative rates. This was despite the fact the European Central Bank could push rates further into negative territory when it meets next week. It isn’t alone: Japan has just introduced them while Switzerland, Sweden and Denmark have been there a while. That has dragged long-term government-bond yields to superlow, or in some cases negative, levels.
3 Tips for Accounting Firm Practice Management
CPA Practice Advisor
It’s no surprise that the accounting industry and its professionals are focused increasingly on how global markets impact practice management and client service. But when asked about the top three concerns among accounting firm leaders, BKR International, one of the world’s leading associations of independent public accounting firms, cited an overwhelming focus on the following: 1. Security Awareness Financial advisory firms of all sizes are actively targeted by hackers in search of client data, according to a top cyber security threats report by BKR International last year, in tandem with the Identity Theft Council in California.
Executives' confidence in U.S. economy falls sharply, AICPA survey finds
Accounting Today
Business executives and other financial leaders' optimism concerning the U.S. economy has fallen to its lowest level in more than three years, according to the first quarter AICPA Economic Outlook Survey, released on Thursday. The Survey polls various CEOs, CFOs, controllers and other CPAs in U.S. companies who hold executive and senior management accounting roles. Approximately 28 percent of the Survey respondents considered themselves as “optimistic” or “very optimistic” about prospects for the U.S. economy over the next 12 months, down 17 percent from last quarter and 40 percent from just a year ago.
New Lease Accounting Rules Won’t Impact Ratings, Fitch Says
Wall Street Journal (CFO Journal)
Fitch Ratings is sticking with its own method for assessing lease-related business risks, so new rules governing how companies report leases won’t affect its ratings of corporate debt. Public companies will have to record lease-related obligations and assets in their balance sheets starting 2019, based on requirements unveiled last week by the Financial Accounting Standards Board. While some of this information is already reported in the footnotes to financial statements, the new regulations require more detailed information.
Cybersecurity Becoming a Bigger Part of Internal Audit
Accounting Today
Nearly three out of four organizations now include cybersecurity risks in their internal audits, a big jump from last year, according to a new survey. The annual survey, by the consulting firm Protiviti, found that 73 percent of the organizations it polled now include cybersecurity risk in their internal audits, a 20 percent increase year-over-year. More than half (57 percent) of the companies surveyed said they have received inquiries from customers, clients and/or insurance providers about the organization’s state of cybersecurity.
How Enterprise Robotic Process Automation Is Revolutionizing Accounting
CPA Practice Advisor
The accounting industry is on the verge a significant change. Researchers at Oxford University have projected that accounting processes has a 93% chance of being automated in the next 20 years. The work of accounting and finance professionals is on the precipice of a monumental shift. While finance professionals should be aware of this transformation, they should be confident that their jobs are not going to be taken over by robots anytime soon.
New Leasing Standard Could Benefit Companies
Accounting Today
The Financial Accounting Standards Board’s new lease accounting standard could have some positive payoffs for companies if they take a careful approach to implementing it. FASB released the long-awaited standard last week after a decade of work with the International Accounting Standards Board as one of their major convergence projects (see FASB Releases Lease Accounting Standard). “Companies are now realizing this is real,” said Sheri Wyatt, managing director of PricewaterhouseCoopers’ Capital Markets Accounting Advisory Services.