NYSSCPA Members in the News

Jamie Block (Rochester)
Red flags in choosing tax preparer
WROC Rochester First
CPA Jamie Block discussed some red flags to look out for when selecting a tax preparer to assist with your income tax return Monday on News 8 at Sunrise. Block said the IRS has technology that will detect mistakes on your return, honest or dishonest. Fraudulent returns will result in a tax penalty and may also include interest and other penalties.

NYSSCPA Mention
Twelve Factors that Can Lead to Physician Stress
Physicians Practice
A growing number of career professionals — not just in healthcare — think that they are in a profession that uniquely contributes to stress. Insurance agents think that the insurance industry is inherently stressful. Taxi drivers know that they're in a stressful job. A study by the New York State Society of CPAs found that most CPAs agree that public accounting is a high-stress profession.

NYSSCPA Tax Hotline Mention
To e-file or not to e-file: Tips, tricks and tools for tax season
Poughkeepsie Journal
As the deadline to file federal and state income taxes approaches, taxpayers are faced with a number of questions: Should you prepare your own taxes, or use a professional? What are the benefits of filing online vs. physically through the mail? Is it better to use standard deductions or itemized? There are answers to these questions, though some may vary depending on each taxpayer’s individual situation.

Other Accounting and Financial News Stories

FASB Amends Revenue Recognition Standard
Accounting Today
The Financial Accounting Standards Board has amended the converged revenue recognition standard it developed with the International Accounting Standards to add more guidance about principal versus agent considerations. The changes in the accounting standards update reflect an issue identified by the joint Transition Resource Group, or TRG, that FASB and the IASB set up in 2014 after issuing the long-awaited revenue recognition standard.

Low Rates Are Tormenting Insurers—and Their Customers
Wall Street Journal
Life-insurance companies are scouring their policies to identify ways to raise rates and fees and lower the amount of interest they have to pay on savings products as low interest rates cut into their profits. The bottom line for policyholders is they have to pay up or relinquish benefits. The main culprit: the Federal Reserve’s seven-year-old campaign to boost the economy.

Shedding Light on Taxes: Recasting a Disclosure Framework
Bloomberg BNA
If all goes according to plan at a March 23 meeting of the Financial Accounting Standards Board, the panel will set its sights on issuing a fresh exposure draft soon on improving footnote disclosures about income taxes. A subtopic within that effort – part of FASB’s multi-faceted disclosure framework project – is unremitted foreign earnings.

These High-Fee, Unlisted, Junk-Based Funds Aren’t Working Out
Wall Street Journal
An obscure Wall Street product popular in the easy-money years after the financial crisis is starting to show some cracks. Investors who poured $22 billion into funds called “nontraded business development companies” are now pulling out record sums as the value of those investments flags, according to a review of public filings done for The Wall Street Journal. The funds carry a number of unusual risks that haven’t provided much of a deterrent to investors reaching for yield amid record-low interest rates.

NY Millionaires Write to Governor Asking for Higher Taxes
ABC News
A group of more than 40 millionaires in New York state has written to Democratic Gov. Andrew Cuomo and top lawmakers calling on them to consider raising taxes on the state's wealthiest residents to help address poverty and rebuild failing infrastructure. The letter, a copy of which was given to The Associated Press, proposes new, higher tax rates for the top 1 percent of earners. The letter goes on to say additional revenue is needed to address child poverty, homelessness and aging bridges, tunnels, waterlines and roads.

Overheard: Wall Street and March Madness
Wall Street Journal
Spring is in the air on Wall Street as all eyes are turned to college basketball. Sporting events tend to attract finance workers’ attention. Rumor has it that the Internet connection of at least one large New York City hedge fund slowed to a crawl during the 2014 World Cup as its employees streamed the final. But the three-week college basketball tournament known as March Madness holds a special place in Wall Street’s collective heart.