January 2001

By P. Gerard Sokolski, CPA Happy New Year to one and all. It’s almost hard to believe that seven months have passed since I took office. A lot has happened since that time, including a new leadership conference, global credential, a new push for the Uniform Accountancy Act, and the board of director’s decision to open six new chapters thanks to the recommendations from the Task Force on Chapters.

As many of you well know, the New York State Society of CPAs is in the process of creating six new chapters, three upstate and three in the New York City area. I am pleased to say that I have appointed steering committees for the six new chapters.

I would encourage all Society members to take an interest in these new chapters and work with us, and the steering committees, to make these new chapters a resounding success. We hope that it will be easier for all members to take advantage of the various benefits of membership in the Society by belonging to a Chapter, new or established, in their locale.

The results of the membership survey are in. I would like to thank everyone who took the time to complete the survey for their efforts. Over 4,400 members responded to this survey. It is interesting to note that the largest number of responses came from the 36-45-age bracket, with the next highest response coming from the 46-55-age bracket.

The staff is currently analyzing the data and we will provide you with complete statistics when this task is complete. The input will benefit the Society in its ongoing efforts to provide the best possible services to the membership.

Now that we are in the new year, I would like to remind our members that the Leadership Conference has a new look. The conference will be held in Hershey, Pa., on June 9-12, 2001, and combines the Annual Conference and the Leadership Conference. Two separate tracks will be presented and the future leadership of the Society will have the opportunity to make their views known.

Also new for this year is an “industry section” in The Trusted Professional. The Society recognizes that many of our members work in various industries. To help serve the needs of all members, The Trusted Professional will publish a regular section on news and information focusing on the needs of members working in industry. The effort is being spearheaded by Industry Oversight Committee Chair Neville Grusd, who is working closely with Society staff to develop this new Trusted Professional section.

The Society is also working hard in Albany, N.Y., to have the state adopt the Uniform Accountancy Act now that the new legislative session has started. Bills are being introduced in both the State Senate and the Assembly that would have our state implement major portions of the UAA over the next few years.

California is also preparing to adopt one of the UAA’s major provisions, the 150-hour education requirement for CPA licensing. As discussed in this issue’s front-page article, The California state Board of Accountancy says it is supporting the 150-hour requirement in the “Sunset Review report that it sent to the Joint Legislative Sunset Review Committee. If enacted, California will join New York and the growing number of states that would require college students with accounting majors to have 150-hours of study to get their degree.

By now most of you are probably familiar with the term “Cognitor” (also known as “XYZ”). It is the proposed global business credential being developed by an international task force including the American Institute of CPAs and chartered accounting societies from Canadia, South Africa, Australia and New Zealand. I would urge all of you to take the time to respond to the cognitor survey. You have the option of answering the survey at NYSSCPA.org or doing it the old fashion way and mailing it in into the State Society offices.

I received a few phone calls from members wondering what Cognitor was all about, which I think is one of the critical issues. That is, in order to vote intelligently on the issue, one must be familiar with it. (See the “Cognitor” section of the website at www.nysscpa.org/home/xyz/xyzdesignation.htm.) We will be making every attempt to provide the membership with all the information available to us about the cognitor. Your response to the survey will assist the New York delegation of AICPA Council in deciding what position to take on the Cognitor at future Council meetings. (Visit www.nysscpa.org/survey1/survey.htm.) The next meeting of Council will be the Regional Council meeting on March 29th followed by the Spring Council in Washington, D.C., starting on April 30th.

The Nominating Committee has completed its responsibility in selecting the nominees for next year. The Nominating Committee has completed its responsibility in selecting the nominees for next year. The nominations include Jo Ann Golden as our president-elect; G. William Hatfield, Elliot Hendler, Ronald Huefner, and Kevin McCoy for the vice president spot; and Frank Aquilino for treasurer.

For the Society's board of directors, the nominees include Rosemarie A. Barnickel, Peter L. Berlant, Peter H. Frank, Mark A. Plostock, and Howard D. Weiner as directors-at-large and Katharine K. Doran, Michael J. DePietro, and Kevin J. O'Connor as chapter representatives.

For many of my fellow CPAs, tax season is the busiest and probably craziest time of the year. To help us through the tax season, the Society is again putting tax forms on our website at www.nysscap.org, which tax professionals and other members can freely download.

Those of you with small clients may have something to cheer about since the federal government did away with the installment sales tax provision of “the Ticket to Work and Work Incentives Act of 1999” that forced small business owners to pay taxes on the sale of their businesses all at once, even if the sale price was paid out over several years. In December the U.S. government passed the “Installment Tax Correction Act of 2000,” which repealed the provision against installment payments for sold businesses.