August 1999

AICPA Eliminates Committees to Align with Vision

Tax Division Hardest Hit

By Danielle D'Angelo

The AICPA board of directors approved a shift in the Institute's committee structure that will eliminate many and transform a number of permanent committees into task forces operating on a project basis.

In an e-mail memorandum to AICPA committee chairs, AICPA Chair Olivia F. Kirtley and Vice Chair Robert K. Elliott said that the new model better aligns with the CPA Vision, the multi-year initiative to redefine the accounting profession. (See page 5 for more on the CPA Vision.)

The restructuring will disband 40 to 50 of the more than 120 existing AICPA committees, according to participants in conference calls that the Institute held with current chairs. The change disproportionately affects the Institute's tax division and will eliminate all but two of the 22 existing tax committees.

"With the new structure, we can better garner the vast talents of the profession, apply them quickly to market-driven issues as they arise, and be flexible in the process," Elloitt and Kirtley said.

The board's actions caught many AICPA committee members by surprise and they question the effectiveness of a task force approach. Such task forces generally are expected to complete their missions over a short time as compared to standing committees. It is not yet clear how many of the disbanded tax committees will be task forces.

Tax Executive Committee Opposed to Plan

The AICPA's Tax Executive Committee, which was not one of the committees eliminated, opposes the restructuring plan since it effectively will disband the tax division as it currently exists. At press time, the committee was conducting conference calls with division members and gathering other feedback to present its concerns to AICPA leadership.

AICPA leadership had instructed all division committees to incorporate the new CPA Vision fully into their business plans. Since the tax division recently completed a three-year strategic planning and implementation process, an overhaul and reduction of its committees by a third, and was in the final stages of reviewing its vision alignment, many members were particularly surprised at restructuring's impact on tax committees.

"Apparently the AICPA has decided that tax is not part of the CPA Vision," said one committee chair, who asked to remain anonymous.

AICPA President and CEO Barry Melancon took issue with this view.

"The new structure will allow the tax division to be more flexible, more connected, and more effective," he said. "High level tax, which is where a tremendous amount of the tax division work is focused today, will continue and is very much Vision related."

Several sources among tax division members believe that decision makers involved in the committee restructuring did not understand what the division does. For example, the new format left intact the Tax Legislative Liaison Committee since the AICPA apparently views liaison responsibilities as committee rather than task force functions. Yet this committee's principal function is to promote the tax division's image and effectiveness with government, and to interact with other tax division committees to coordinate legislative agendas and proposals.

On the other hand, most of the division's more technically-oriented committees, such as the Individual Taxation, Corporations and Shareholders Taxation, Partnership Taxation, S Corporation Taxation, and Tax Accounting committees, among others, conduct ongoing liaison efforts with the Internal Revenue Service, Treasury Department, and various nonfederal government organizations.

Many tax division members criticized the decision to eliminate these committees and felt it remains to be seen whether short-lived task forces can effectively develop and deliver the views of the more than 25,000 AICPA tax members. Melancon, however, stressed that the new organization would continue to meet the division's needs.

"The work of the tax division is about people, projects, and issues and structure. The projects and issues will continue, the people part means more member involvement through electronic means and other media, and the structure is the only part that is changing," Melancon said. "This also applies to all the other areas impacted. The structure change will work differently but will involve many more members from across the country.

Group of 100 to Set Strategy

The reorganization, which the AICPA said its board began planning even before its adoption of the CPA Vision, calls for the formation of a "Group of 100," pulled from AICPA leadership ranks and representing various segments of the profession. The new committee, which also will include some non-CPAs as invited guests, will help set the strategy for the Institute.

"The group's purpose will be to identify emerging issues, capturing the 'hottest' concepts in the marketplace so the AICPA can rapidly respond with appropriate actions," Elloitt and Kirtley said in their memorandum to committee chairs.

Committee chairs familiar with the AICPA plan said that this group of 100 will report to a smaller group of approximately ten senior AICPA members and staff representatives who will then decide the course of action and how to address the issues with appropriate task forces.