NYSSCPA Members in the News
Paul Dailey (Nassau)
Retiring abroad: 3 things to know before you pack your bags
Yahoo Finance
Want to join the growing ranks of retirees living abroad ? Before packing your bags and setting off for an exotic location far, far, away, you'll have to make some important decisions and plan very carefully. "You have to be brutally honest with yourself," said Dan Prescher, senior editor for retirement lifestyle magazine International Living.
NYSSCPA Mention – COAP Program
CPA Firms Urged to Increase Diversity
IMDiversity
New Jersey Society of CPAs CEO and executive director Ralph Albert Thomas is encouraging CPA firms and other businesses to expand their diversity and inclusion efforts. During a speech Wednesday in New York at a meeting of the Accountants Club of America, Thomas stressed that CPA firms need to reflect the changing demographics in the U.S. population and within their own clients’ businesses.
Other Accounting and Finance News Stories
IRS censorship of nonprofits must give way to the First Amendment
First Amendment Coalition
Because of legal restrictions on nonprofit, “charitable” organizations, I am not allowed to say that Donald Trump poses an existential threat to First Amendment freedoms. I believe it to be true. But as executive director of the First Amendment Coalition, I am supposed to keep such thoughts to myself.
8 Pitfalls CPAs Should Avoid While Volunteering in Your Community
AccountingWEB
Many CPA firms around the country have outreach and volunteer initiatives in their local areas, but sometimes there are those that are obviously pushing their own agenda. For example, when we think about electing people to a high political office, we wonder: “Would they put the good of the country ahead of their own personal agenda?”
Portability: A Useful Estate Planning Tool
JD Supra Business Advisor
The concept of "portability" in estate planning is the most substantial change to the estate planning landscape for married couples in recent memory. Introduced as a temporary feature by the 2010 Tax Relief Act, portability became permanent under the Taxpayer Relief Act of 2012. The IRS did not issue the final regulations governing portability until the summer of 2015, so the intricacies of using portability going forward are only now becoming clearer.
Yet More Flux in The SEC’s Office of Chief Accountant
Bloomberg BNA
On July 21, the Securities and Exchange Commission put out the news that Wesley Bricker, an SEC deputy chief accountant, was named interim chief accountant at the agency. A day later, the SEC announced that Brian Croteau, another deputy chief accountant, would be leaving the staff of the Office of Chief Accountant. Since 2010, Croteau, a former partner in PricewaterhouseCoopers’s national office, has ridden herd directly on auditing standards, domestically and internationally, and on matters involving the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board, which the SEC appoints and oversees.
IPSASB Releases Guidance on Public Sector Accounting
Accounting Today
The International Public Sector Accounting Standards Board has published new guidance on how the public sector can account for employee benefits around the world and is also considering changes in how to account for financial instruments. The changes align the standard with the latest International Financial Reporting Standards for employee benefits.
Why the Future of Management Accounting Looks Bright
AccountingWEB
Management accountants provide myriad services within a business, from financial reporting and control to planning, decision-making, and creating performance management systems. But there is a notable skills gap that the Institute of Management Accountants (IMA) is looking to address. The IMA is set up to propel these accountants and also help them overcome obstacles, including the aforementioned skills gap, which was addressed in a recent competency framework proposal.
Accounting News Roundup: A New Kind of PwC Partner and No Trump Tax Returns For You! | 07.28.16
GoingConcern
A new kind of PwC partner - Here's an interview with Juan-carlos Morales, "the first creative executive in [PwC]'s history to make partner." Yes, it's interesting that he's a former graffiti artist, but it's also interesting because the word "partner" used to mean something very different for accounting firms. For as long as I can recall, "partner" inferred that someone was a CPA.
International Accounting Standards Widely Used: IFRS
Tax-News
The IASB, responsible for International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS), and the IFRS Foundation that oversees its work, have estimated that more than 25,000 of the approximately 48,000 domestic listed companies on the 85 major securities exchanges in the world use its accounting standards. Providing an update on the progress of the adoption of the international accounting standards around the world, it is also said that, of those domestic listed companies that do not use IFRS, over 80 percent (almost 14,900 out of 18,550) are listed in China, India, Japan, and the United States.
CIMA: Management Accountant Salaries Growing at Twice the National Average
Yahoo Finance
Salaries within the management accountancy sector have continued to grow at twice the national average, according to the Chartered Institute of Management Accountants (CIMA) Annual Salary Survey, sponsored by the Global Accounting Network. The results reveal that average earnings among qualified members reached £64,011 in 2016 (an increase of 1.9%), £36,411 more than the current average UK wage.
IRS Tax Treatment of Wellness Program Benefits
The National Law Review
The IRS Office of Chief Counsel recently released a memorandum providing guidance on the proper tax treatment of workplace wellness programs. Workplace wellness programs cover a range of plans and strategies adopted by employers to counter rising healthcare costs by promoting healthier lifestyles and providing employees with preventive care.
Stock Indexes Steady Amid Stream of Earnings
Wall Street Journal
A deluge of earnings reports Thursday swung individual stocks but left major U.S. indexes near where they started the day. U.S. stocks have largely stalled since they repeatedly hit new highs earlier in the month. Many investors had expressed hope that a stream of stronger-than-expected corporate earnings would propel stocks further.
Americans’ Financial Satisfaction Highest Since 2007: CPA Group
ThinkAdvisor
Americans’ financial satisfaction in the second quarter climbed to its highest level since the third quarter of 2007, notwithstanding political uncertainty at home and abroad, the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants reported Thursday in releasing its second quarter Personal Financial Satisfaction Index. The index stands at 17.1, a 3.4-point increase from the first quarter and a 1.2-point increase from a year ago.
New York Fed Relocating Examiners Out of Banks
Wall Street Journal
The Federal Reserve Bank of New York is moving scores of regulators out of their offices inside big banks amid criticism that it has grown too close to the institutions it supervises. The New York Fed expects that all of its nearly 250 on-site bank examiners—about a third of its bank-supervision group—will be relocated to newly refurbished central-bank offices in lower Manhattan by the end of 2017, people familiar with the matter said.
Wall St. Edges Higher as Investors Assess Earnings
New York Times
Stocks on Wall Street had another day of meager gains on Thursday as investors worked through a new batch of mixed company earnings, including results from Facebook, Ford and Whole Foods. Cautious investors are looking ahead to a meeting of the Bank of Japan on Friday, which is expected to result in an announcement of more stimulus for that country, the world’s third-largest economy.