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| April 1 , 2005 | The
Newspaper of the NYSSCPA |
Vol.
8, No.6 |
One Hot Commodity
In Tax Season, Media Take Advantage of Society’s Time and Expertise
By
Lois Whitehead, Public Relations Manager
With
April 15 fast approaching, all eyes have turned to the accounting profession.
For the media especially, CPAs are a valuable source of information.
This filing season, the NYSSCPA is providing media outlets far and wide
with professional anecdotes, critical insight and expert advice on a
diverse range of issues affecting taxpayers.
Consider this: In New York City, ABC Eyewitness News, CBS 2 and NY1 News all have tapped the NYSSCPA for weekly tax segments the stations currently are broadcasting. Members also have participated in interviews with the The New York Times, the Associated Press, The Street.com, The New York Post, Newsday and Bloomberg. And in what has become a long-standing tradition, The Daily News has again turned to the NYSSCPA for its weekly question-and-answer columns on important tax matters.
The Society’s chapters are also key players in this year’s tax coverage. The chapters’ ongoing relationship with The Post-Standard of Syracuse and The Journal News of Westchester, Rockland and Putnam continues to benefit residents in those areas, who have an opportunity to talk directly to CPAs manning tax hotlines at those newspapers. Southern Tier Chapter members can be found in the pages of The Leader (Corning) and The Evening Sun (Norwich) newspapers; WPTZ News Channel 5 and The Ogdensburg Journal (Ogdensburg) have made the most of their affiliation with the Adirondack Chapter; the Niagara Gazette (Niagara Falls), the Observer-Dispatch (Utica) and WGRZ-TV (Buffalo) are all beneficiaries of the Utica and Buffalo chapters’ time and expertise; Finger Lakes Chapter members can be seen on WETM-TV (Elmira); Northeast Chapter members are quoted in The Daily Gazette (Schenectady); and the Staten Island Advance relies on Staten Island Chapter members for many of its tax stories. These media outlets and many others around the state also received an informative press release highlighting the major tax changes that have taken place since last year.
Similarly, the NYSSCPA has produced public service announcements about the tax season that statewide radio stations can air. These announcents include information about paying for college tuition, itemizing deductions, long-term care insurance, tax considerations for military personnel, and New York state tax credits.
Finally, and no great surprise, New York media has expressed significant interest in the alternative minimum tax this year. Our members have helped shed light on this confusing and controversial tax that an increasing number of taxpayers are falling into. Other popular topics that the Society has addressed include common filing mistakes and handling inquiries from the Internal Revenue Service.
