NYSSCPA Members in the News

Matt Bryant (Rochester)
Marriage & finances
WROC Rochester First
CPA Matt Bryant discussed the challenges surrounding finances for newlyweds Monday on News 8 at Sunrise. Bryant said newlyweds need to begin with a conversation about money. "I think the first step is to write down the goals each person has," he said. "Then you can look at them as a couple and order them in terms of priorities." Even if the goals differ, Bryant said couples can work together to address their differences. "Trying to make them in an order of priority helps the couple," he said. "Try to get goals that are going to accomplish things for both people."

NYSSCPA International Tax Conference
NYSSCPA International Tax Conference, 26 January 2017 – I’m speaking about expatriation
Hodgen Law PC
Just a heads-up (and shameless promotion) for this upcoming event. I am giving a presentation at the New York State Society of Certified Public Accountants’ International Tax Conference on January 26, 2017. The topic is expatriation. Sign up to attend in person or livestreamed on the web. And many thanks to the Committee (and especially Susan Brown Otto) for inviting me.  will be in New York for a few extra days, in the name of fun, etc.  My wife is coming with me on this trip. She lived in Manhattan for 15 years before moving to California (where I met her) so she takes every opportunity she can to return to NYC.

Other Accounting and Financial News Stories

Real Records Are Necessary for Deducting Business Use of Car
CPA Practice Advisor
The IRS can disallow deductions for travel expenses, including those for business car use, if you don't keep adequate records. Notably, you're required to keep a contemporaneous log or other similar record of your business trips. That doesn't mean you have to record the information as soon as you arrive home, but you can't wait until months have passed either. In lieu of keeping track of actual expenses, you can use a standard mileage method based on the business miles traveled (you still must keep track of the dates, business reasons, and mileage for business-related trips).

Tax Strategy Scan: Imitating 401(k)s
Accounting Today
Our weekly roundup of tax-related investment strategies and news your clients may be thinking about. Clients might be able to beat a 401(k) by investing on their own: Advisers can help clients tweak their outside investments so they return some of the same or better results, commonly associated with 401(k) plans, according to USA Today. This approach relies on imitating the savings habits of these retirement plan participants.

FASB Coping with Board Turnover
Accounting Today
The Financial Accounting Standards Board is planning to welcome new board members as the terms of several of its members end next year. This past July, accounting professor Christine Ann Botosan joined the board (see Utah Professor Christine Ann Botosan Joins FASB). But there will be more turnover in 2017, according to FASB chair Russell Golden.

SEC Chairman White to Leave Agency, Opening Door to Conservative Shift
Wall Street Journal
Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman Mary Jo White plans to step down in January, opening the door to a new Republican-appointed leader who could move to loosen rules on Wall Street and curb the aggressive enforcement approach Ms. White prosecuted. The change in command portends a significant shift at the SEC, which has for six years focused on tightening rules required by the 2010 Dodd-Frank Act, a regulatory overhaul championed by Democrats.

Another ACA Provision Sneaks in Next Year
CPA Practice Adivisor
After a number of stops and starts, most of the provisions in the Affordable Care Act (ACA) – the massive healthcare legislation known as Obamacare – have been implemented, including insurance mandates for individuals and most employers. But another significant change isn’t slated to take effect until January 1, 2017. In essence, it could change the way the law works in many states. However, now that nation has elected Republican Donald Trump to the White House, the president-elect has vowed to “repeal and replace” Obamacare as one of his first tasks in office. It remains to be seen how long this ACA provision will last.

Bitcoin Futures Might Be Coming Soon
Wall Street Journal
Bitcoin has moved one step closer to mainstream credibility after the world’s largest futures exchange operator launched a pair of indexes designed to track the virtual currency’s price. The gauges from CME Group Inc. could be used as building blocks for futures contracts that would make it easier for both professional and individual contracts that would make it easier for both professional and individual investors to trade bitcoin.

The CFO as CPA Is a “Tradeoff”
Financial Executives International
Companies that hire an executive with deep accounting experience as their chief financial officer (CFO) recognize the “tradeoffs” and will take steps to shore up their strategic and other non-accounting related skills in the C-suite, according to newly published research. In fact, whether a CFO has accounting expertise is highly correlated to the industry they operate in as regulators force management’s hand in picking the skills of their team.

Big Companies: Don't Wait on New Revenue Rules
Bloomberg BNA
Some big U.S. companies that are moving along in implementing far-reaching accounting rules on revenue recognition said their extensive preparatory work is paying off in preventing major administrative headaches. Still, the task of shifting to the new revenue standard issued in 2014 presents myriad challenges—especially to aerospace contractors such as the Boeing Co., the company's accounting chief said Nov. 14—that require involved preparation.