In the News: 4 Helpful Quotes from CPAs

I read so many great quotes from CPAs every day and have such a limited space to summarize them on the blog– it can get to be a bit frustrating.  As I began drafting my bi-weekly ‘In the News’ post, I decided to switch things up this week.

I present to you four helpful quotes from CPAs. Hey – everyone can use a little help now and then.

As Kelli Grant reports in MarketWatch, going to summer camp may be a rite of passage for children, but for parents, it seems more like an initiation into the woes of tuition payments.

What parents might not know is that camp expenses can translate into a tax break.

5 Things CPAs Need to Know about Integrated Reporting

Last week, my blog post discussed that Integrated Reporting <IR> represents an important shift in corporate reporting in which CPAs can play a key role providing consulting services, implementation or report preparation. In today’s blog, I’m drilling down into some of the key concepts of the recently released Consultation Draft of the International <IR> Framework that are important for CPAs to understand.

Five features of the Draft Framework are:

Tax Reform: The Crystal Ball Never Lies

People often ask me, “Ed, when do you think we’ll finally see tax reform?”

“Not before 2014,” I respond with assurance.
“How can you be so sure, Ed?” they say.
“My crystal ball never lies!

But I started getting a bit nervous about sounding so confident.  After a little digging, I found out my crystal ball had once predicted that the Titanic was unsinkable, yet it went down on April 15, 1912. How’s that for foreshadowing?! That forced me to do some soul searching and thinking.

Flash back to November 2011. I was sitting next to Pat Thompson, who chaired the AICPA Tax Executive Committee.  We were listening to Don Longano, former House Ways and Means Committee Chief Counsel and Washington tax insider, share his views on the prospects for tax legislation at the National Tax Conference.

SEC Using XBRL to Flag Reports for Review

Seal of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Not too long ago, I heard Craig M. Lewis, Director and Chief Economist of the Securities and Exchange Commission’s Division of Risk, Strategy and Financial Innovation, give a presentation on the SEC’s new predictive accounting quality model, nicknamed “RoboCop” by the trade press, which will enable the SEC to monitor and flag reports for further review.

What makes AQM so useful, Mr. Lewis said in an interview with Merrill Compliance Solutions, is that, by using XBRL, the tool can be “applied broadly to the entire filer space.” Previous versions of the tool used Compustat data, which did not include all filing companies. With XBRL, 100 percent of filing companies will be analyzed by AQM.

Student Debt Delays Spending, Saving and Marriage [INFOGRAPHIC]

According to a new survey conducted for the AICPA by Harris Interactive, only 39% fully understood the burden student loan debt would place on the future and 60% have at least some regret over the choice of education financing.  Furthermore, 75% have made a personal or financial sacrifice--such as delaying a home purchase and postponing marriage and children--because of monthly student loan payments. The press release includes tips for parents and students on both saving for college and managing loan payments. The below 360 Degrees of Financial Literacy infographic, Realities & Regrets of Student Debt, highlights the findings.