When the COVID-19 crisis began in New York in mid-March, and CPAs across the state began working remotely, the NYSSCPA was quick to respond through aggressive advocacy efforts and with timely resources and guidance.

Advocacy
With the New York state tax deadline only a month away, the NYSSCPA advocacy team lobbied the governor’s office, as well as the New York State Department of Taxation and Finance (NYSDTF), for a tax-filing deadline extension to July 15—to match the federal extension announced by the IRS. As a result, Gov. Andrew Cuomo issued Executive Order 202.12, extending the deadline. Then, after the NYSDTF issued Notice N-20-8 on June 11, 2020, regarding the payment of estimated tax due for New York state and New York City for the first two quarters of 2020—with the first payment due on June 15 and the second on July 15—the Society wrote a letter asking for clarification of several questions that arose regarding penalty dates and the calculation of payments.

The Society also asked for tax extension guidance in order to ensure that members could follow the letter of the law. As a result of the advocacy team efforts, another order, Executive Order 202.31, allowed for electronic signatures to be accepted for e-file authorizations for tax returns. In late May, the governor extended that order through July 15. The Society continues to work to get legislation passed that would permanently allow for e-signature authorizations.

Overall, the Society pushed for additional guidance on more than 24 other filing deadlines on both the state and federal level, working with the AICPA on the federal deadlines.

Advocacy efforts continued when Gov. Cuomo was preparing to order a lockdown of business activities, except for “essential services.” These efforts were successful in getting accounting included as an essential service in Gov. Cuomo’s Executive Order. No. 202.6. This order enabled firms to remain in operation, allowing them to serve their business clients large and small.

NYSSCPA President Edward L. Arcara said that it was “extremely important that accounting was declared an essential service because we’re usually the first call.”  The pandemic was so pervasive, he said, that when the stay-at-home orders came down, clients, more likely than not, called their accountants immediately.  “We set up a streamline to the clients, anticipating what their needs were, ”Arcara said. “If we weren’t essential, then, technically, we would not be able to provide these services … during this time of crisis.”

Speaking of the Society’s advocacy, he said, “We were the spearhead to get answers both on the federal level, working with the AICPA, and on the state level, through the NYSSCPA. There were a lot of issues out there that no one agency could think of. They couldn’t think of everything and needed the CPAs to start to analyze what needed to be done.”

On the federal level, when Congress was preparing its major legislative response to the pandemic, the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act in late March, the Society lobbied the New York congressional delegation—Sens. Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.) and Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.)—to have not-for-profit organizations included as authorized recipients of Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) loans.

In addition, the Society recognized that distributing aid to the millions of small businesses threatened by the pandemic created logistical challenges. So it joined with the AICPA in an early attempt to leverage existing payroll processors so as to ensure easier access to those funds directly. The Society outlined this plan in letters to key legislators Congresswoman Nydia Velázquez, a member of the House Financial and Economic Literacy Caucus, and Congressman Thomas Suozzi, a member of the Congressional CPA Caucus, and urged them to take up these measures.

The Society kept members informed of these initiatives through a range of communications, including emails, Exchange posts and social media.

Resources and education
Early on during the crisis, the Society set up a COVID-19 web page, to provide important information for members about tax deadlines, the CARES Act and other matters related to the crisis, along with a mechanism for them to submit questions. The page offers news, rules and guidance sorted by headings such as Accounting and Auditing, Tax Practice Management, Cybersecurity and Manage Your Practice. More recently, the Society launched a public-facing COVID-19 website, allowing members to provide more information for their clients and to serve the general public.

In addition, the  Foundation for Accounting Education (FAE) has been presenting a wide variety of CPE courses specifically focused on COVID-19 topics. Courses have included “COVID-19 Legal Developments Impacting Small Business Financial Issues”; “Managing Workforce Issues Through a Pandemic”; “Accounting, Auditing, SSARS, and Other Implications Caused by COVID-19”; and “COVID-19 Relief for Individuals and Small Businesses: Owners.”

“We did a series of four two-credit courses on topics that were extremely timely,” said John J. Lauchert, president of the FAE Board of Trustees, noting that these courses were free to all members. “It all came together and was put forth … within weeks of the initial stay-at-home directives and the initial Families First legislation that required employers to provide paid family leave.” The courses were well attended; one of them garnered more than 350 viewers. “It was an example of FAE using its resources and its online platform to provide a meaningful benefit to our members at a time of great uncertainly,” Lauchert said. “Our members … welcomed the opportunity to learn, and FAE was pleased to help meet that need.”

“I believe that these were some of the first continuing education opportunities that I saw in the marketplace,” he added. “This was a conscious decision to do something special for our members when they could use a break—something to recognize the fact we were thinking of them.”

The Society also presented two free, virtual town halls for its members, one focusing on not-for-profit organizations and another focusing on small businesses. The not-for-profit session, on April 24, featured comments by NYSSCPA Executive Director and CEO Joanne S. Barry and by Steve Bulger, the regional administrator for the Atlantic Region II of the of the Small Business Administration (SBA). In addition, Patrick Yu moderated a panel of experts: Magdalena M. Czerniawski, Peter A. Egan, Jeffry R. Haber and Amy West. The town hall focusing on small businesses, on May 13, featured comments by Peter A. Fehnel, supervisory economic development specialist at the New York district office of the SBA, and a panel moderated by Orumé A. Hays, consisting of Arcara, David Evangelista, Robert S. Keebler and Portia Rose. Many of these discussions focused on issues arising from PPP loans, and both town halls were very well attended, drawing, in combination, about 350 members.

The Trusted Professional’s blog, featured numerous articles providing in-depth coverage of the CARES Act; the initial article about the CARES Act received more than 8,000 web views. The blog also reported on the many twists and turns involved in the launching and renewal of the PPP. Other blog posts covered the extensions of tax deadlines; the announcements of delays in the rollout of several accounting standards; and the economic impacts of the pandemic, from the perspectives of markets, the Federal Reserve’s responses, unemployment claims and bankruptcies.

Exchange
From the start of the crisis, the Society’s professional network Exchange platform was filled with detailed discussions about tax extensions, PPP loans, other provisions of the CARES Act, and a range of issues stemming from the health crisis. Society members offered guidance to other members, based on their areas of expertise. Several Society members went the extra mile and provided analysis and insights into ambiguous provisions of the CARES Act.

Committees
The Society’s committees have also been active in responding to the crisis. The New York, Multistate and Local Taxation Committee assisted Society leadership in communicating with the NYSDTF. Philip J. London, a former chair of the committee, was particularly helpful in this regard. Technical hotline volunteers from the Small Firms Practice Management and the Taxation of Individuals committees fielded the most calls regarding COVID-19, while volunteers from the New York, Multistate and Local Taxation and the Personal Financial Planning committees also received many calls.

In addition, the Technology Assurance Committee held a meeting in mid-April titled, “COVID-19 and Its Impact on Our Organization—an Open Forum.” Also in April, the CFO Committee hosted a CPE session titled, “CARES Act—What Finance Professionals Need to Know.” The chair invited all tax committees, as well as others, such as Family Office, Accounting and Review Services and Entertainment, Arts and Sports, to attend.

Committee meetings have been running smoothly as teleconferences via the Zoom technology that has been in place for the past three years. Many meetings focused on the impact of the pandemic on the committees’ focus areas. Some committees have even enjoyed better attendance than they did before the crisis.

Joseph A. Maffia, who served as vice president in charge of committees during the 2019–2020 fiscal year, commented on how the committees contributed to a sense of community during a stressful period: “There was a feeling that the committee members, particularly tax-related committees and those dealing with the PPP, could provide resources to one another, to help support their clients,” he said. “What we saw this year, particularly in March, April and May, which is usually in the middle of tax season, was an increase in attendance and fewer meetings cancelled. There was definitely an uptick on the committee level, greater attendance, and all done remotely, which was just a positive. The need was so great, and the committees banded together and fulfilled members’ needs.”

Chapters
Individual chapters responded to the crisis by shifting board meetings to teleconferences, offering webcast courses and keeping chapter members up to date on important issues through email and on the chapter-specific communities on Exchange. Chapter leaders also offered members help in adjusting to the challenges of working from home, and sought feedback on what services chapter members needed from them. See pages 19–20 of the PDF version to read about how some chapters have handled the crisis.