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| March 1, 2004 | The
Monthly Newspaper of the NYSSCPA |
Vol.
7, No. 4 |
We’ve Got the Beat
Media Tap Society for Tax Expertise
By Lois Whitehead, Public Relations Manager
When New York state last year passed into law a provision that requires unpaid sales and use tax to be paid on the taxpayer’s personal income tax return, it inadvertently created a media opportunity for members of the New York State Society of CPAs.
This new reporting requirement, which resulted in the addition of line 56 to the return, requires several pages of instructions, complicated enough to stump even practitioners. If CPAs struggle with it, what hope do consumers have?
The Society’s Public Relations Department thus has created a media campaign to provide consumers with details about the sales and use tax. Tax Division Oversight Committee Chair Stephen Valenti and Stewart Buxbaum and Kenneth Zemsky of the New York, Multistate and Local Taxation Committee have become expert spokespersons on this issue, referred to in media interviews conducted throughout the state.
The Society and its line 56 resident experts have had interviews with NBC, ABC Eyewitness News, The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Daily News, Newsday, The Journal News, The Democrat and Chronicle, The Business Review and The Press and Sun Bulletin.
Other Tax Interview Opportunities
NYSSCPA members have also had media interviews on general tax questions with Forbes, Newsweek, WOR Radio, NY1, Dow Jones, Newsday, Smart Money, The Associated Press, CNN-fn, The Poughkeepsie Journal, Mid-Hudson News, WKTV and the New York Post.
The Society has begun to contribute a weekly question-and-answer tax column in The Daily News in advance of the Society’s annual two-day tax panel with the newspaper, planned for late March. The Society will also staff tax hotlines for The Post-Standard and The Journal News.
Finally, the Society has taken to the airwaves, distributing public service addresses to all New York state radio stations with reminders for taxpayers to check their mailing address before submitting forms and the need for year-round tax planning, and with information on capital gains rates.
To be considered for tax interviews with the media, please contact the author at lwhitehead@nysscpa.org or 212-719-8405 or Sanjay Paranandi, public relations specialist, at sparananadi@nysscpa.org or 212-719-8364.
