California CPA articles from December 2003

California CPA archives from December 2003

Display your involvement: CalCPA member logo available.(California Society of Certified Public Accountants)(Brief Article)
December 1, 2003... If you take CalCPA's recent survey at face value, being a CalCPA member means your business is more successful than your non-member peers and you have a brighter outlook on the future. Shout out that professional success from the mountain...

CalCPA's student outreach program wants to know.(California Society of Certified Public Accountants)(Brief Article)
December 1, 2003... Have you visited students in your community to discuss accounting careers, participated in a career day at your local high school or been a guest speaker in an accounting or math class? If so, CalCPA wants to acknowledge your efforts and...

New IRS tools keep retirement plans compliant.(IRS News)
December 1, 2003... The IRS has a CD-ROM and other materials to help small businesses and plan administrators understand how to keep employee retirement plans eligible for tax-favored status. The materials also explain how to correct errors in the plans, often...

IRS issues guidance on additional bonus depreciation allowance.(IRS News)(Brief Article)
December 1, 2003... The Treasury Department and IRS have issued temporary regulations that detail rules on the additional first-year or "bonus" depreciation allowance. Taxpayers can now deduct an additional 30 percent or 50 percent first-year depreciation...

Council votes to keep specialty credentials.(American Institute of Certified Public Accountants)(Brief Article)
December 1, 2003... The AICPA's governing council voted to retain the three specialty credentials--Personal Financial Specialist, Certified Information Technology Professional and Accredited in Business Valuation--that were previously considered for elimination....

New seats on asb; SEC Practice Section replaced.(American Institute of Certified Public Accountants news)(Brief Article)
December 1, 2003... The AICPA Council agreed to add non-CPA members, including representatives from the user, regulatory and public communities, to the Auditing Standards Board, which continues to set auditing standards for nonpublic entities. The council...

Ethics Committee revises nonattest independence rules.(American Institute of Certified Public Accountants)(Brief Article)
December 1, 2003... The AICPA's Professional Ethics Executive Committee recently revised rules that clarify the general requirements of those who provide nonattest services to attest clients for maintaining independence. Practitioners must now document their...

Enlist now!(Tax Boot Camp seminars)(Brief Article)
December 1, 2003... Tax Boot Camp is designed to prepare new staff of CalCPA members for tax season by providing hands-on training in return preparation, workpaper technique, tax research and basic tax law. "Recruits" are drilled in basic tax techniques during...

FASB defers Consolidation rule.(Financial Accounting Standards Board)(Brief Article)
December 1, 2003... FASB is deferring the implementation date for FIN 46, Consolidation of Variable Interest Entities, to the fourth quarter. FIN 46 requires that a variable interest entity be consolidated by a company that is subject to a majority of the economic...

PCAOB rules on firm inspections.(Public Company Accounting Oversight Board)(Brief Article)
December 1, 2003... The PCAOB's final rules relating to the inspection of public accounting firms would subject registered public accounting firms to routine and special inspections. Routine inspections include annual visits to firms that do the largest volume of...

PCAOB's approach to non-U.S. accounting firms.(Public Company Accounting Oversight Board)(Brief Article)
December 1, 2003... Some of the plans in the PCAOB's briefing paper describing its approach to the oversight of non-U.S. accounting firms include: * A framework permitting degrees of reliance on a firm's home country system of inspections, based on a sliding...

Corrections.(Correction Notice)
December 1, 2003... * In the Fast Tax Facts feature in the November 2003 issue of California CPA, it should have read that the Teacher's Retention Credit is available for taxable year 2003. * In the article titled "Employer Liability in a Wireless World" from...

Accounting, finance salaries stabilize.(News & Trends)(Brief Article)(Illustration)
December 1, 2003... (Accounting, finance salaries stabilize) Starting salaries next year for accounting and finance professionals should be consistent with 2003 levels, according to Robert Half Finance and Accounting's 2004 Salary Guide. To order the guide,...

Retirement plan limitations.(Tax Talk)(Brief Article)(Illustration)
December 1, 2003... Retirement Plan Limitations IRS News Release, IR-2003-122, 10/16/03, announced 2004 retirement plan limitations. Selected 2004 and 2003 limitations are as follows: 2004 2003...

Updated mileage rates.(Tax Talk)(Brief Article)(Illustration)
December 1, 2003... Updated Mileage Rates Rev. Proc. 2003-76 (IRB 2003-43, 10/27/03) provides standard mileage rates for computing 2004 automobile expense deductions. The 2004 and 2003 rates, at cents per mile, are as follows: 2004 2003 ...

Webfocus: new listserve explores Sarbanes-Oxley issues.(California Society of Certified Public Accountants)(Brief Article)
December 1, 2003... A new listserve concerning Sarbanes-Oxley has opened its doors on CalCPA's website. The listserve, dubbed SOXtalks, unites chapter-specific SOX discussion groups with an emphasis on information sharing. The group's focus extends to all SOX...

In memoriam: James McDermith.(News & Trends)(Brief Article)
December 1, 2003... CalCPA member James McDermith died outside of his home in San Bernardino Oct. 25 during the Southern California wildfires, apparently due to smoke inhalation. McDermith, 70, was born on a farm in Pana, III. He received his accounting...

Announcements.(appointments of certified public accountants)(Brief Article)
December 1, 2003... Steve Jaffe was named partner at Encino-based Feinstein & Berson Sept. 1... Daniel Duir and Jonathan Forgy have been named partners at West Covina-based Parke, Guptill & Company LLP, CPAs... Robert Greene has left Westwood-based Allied...

Firm news.(changes at Burr Pilger & Mayer, Duffy, Kruspodin & Co. LLP and renaming of Fuhriman Van Gemeren)(Brief Article)
December 1, 2003... Burr, Pilger & Mayer opened an office in Walnut Creek, at 1350 Carlback Ave., Suite 150... The Walnut Creek firm of Fuhriman-Van Gemeren, CPAs changed its name to Fuhriman Van Gemeren Matlin, CPAs, LLP and launched its website at...

Awards.(awards given to certified public accountants)(Brief Article)
December 1, 2003... Joan Alleckson, president of San Diego-based PCS Audit, has won the Second Annual Balance Award for an accounting firm with one to 100 employees. The award, given by the American Society of Women Accountants, recognizes Alleckson's commitment...

Accomplishments.(appointments of certified public accountants)(Brief Article)
December 1, 2003... Donald Lucia of San Bernardino has been named to the board of Huntington Beach-based GolfGear International... Conrad Black and Kip Dellinger have been named to the seven-member AICPA Tax Division SSTS Quality Control Task Force......

Members in the news.(Member Milestones)
December 1, 2003... Joel Framson of Los Angeles was quoted in a Sept. 15 Newsweek article... Sherman Oaks-based Mitch Freedman was interviewed on Radio America on Sept. 19... Ralph Nefdt of San Francisco was quoted in a Sept. 19 article in Silicon Valley Biz Ink...

Finders keepers: it's the little, and less expensive, things your firm can offer that attract (and keep) good people.
December 1, 2003... Your firm has an opening, so you advertise on an employment website or run an ad in a local newspaper. Within days, you're inundated with resumes. You spend weeks wading through the talent pool, but your firm is in a high-cost area of...

An 80% tax bracket? Beware the hidden tax trap of IRD.(Estate Planning)(income in respect of decedent )
December 1, 2003... We know that there isn't an 80 percent income tax bracket (though none of us would be surprised if one emerged). However, there is a way for an asset to generate an 80 percent--or greater--tax liability. The asset category is income in...

Tax season toolkit: everything you need to navigate through "the cruelest month.".
December 1, 2003... "April is the cruelest month," begins T.S. Eliot's landmark "The Waste Land." And while he wasn't necessarily referring to tax season, many CPAs would wholeheartedly agree. As the holiday season turns (a little too quickly) into tax...

'04 employment law changes.(Employment Law)
December 1, 2003... From an employer's perspective, former Gov. Gray Davis continued his trend of approving employee-friendly bills. Davis signed bills during the most recent session that mandate employer-provided health insurance, expand sexual harassment...

There's value in membership.(California Society of Certified Public Accountants listserves)(Brief Article)
December 1, 2003... Join a virtual network of your CalCPA peers to share ideas, solve problems or just chat about current events. CalCPA listserves are electronic mailing lists and you only need an e-mail address to subscribe. Participants voluntarily subscribe to...

Resources offer CPAs road map to eldercare solutions.(ElderCare)
December 1, 2003... Practitioners who work with older clients know that they come with a unique set of characteristics. For example, when a client problem surfaces, it is generally urgent--sometimes a life or death matter--and must be solved immediately. However,...

Marketing your firm from the inside out.(Business Marketing)
December 1, 2003... Additional vacation time or flex time may help your firm recruit and retain employees, but that's usually an insufficient incentive. In reality, making your firm more attractive to current and prospective employees is as much a marketing job as...

California's heroes: [when disaster strikes, CalCPA members are ready to help].(financial disaster advice)(related article: Before Disaster Strikes -- Be Prepared)
December 1, 2003... As the fires raged through Southern California in late October, a radio news reporter, interested in CalCPA members' offers to provide fire victims with pro bono tax and financial services, queried, "Have you ever seen such a response from CPAs...

Uncertain future: budget, regime change will pose challenges.(California Tax)
December 1, 2003... "Some of you might be aware that we had a recall," Franchise Tax Board Executive Director Gerry Goldberg joked, as he began the CalCPA Committee on Taxation's annual liaison meeting with the FTB in mid-October. While the impact of the...

NASBA plays offense; tackles peer review, ethics, empowering state boards.(Government Relations)(National Association of State Boards of Accountancy)
December 1, 2003... Sarbanes-Oxley changed the land-scape for public companies and their advisers when it created the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board and expanded the Securities and Exchange Commission's role. The PCAOB and SEC are not yet fully...

Tax year change relief: new election allows four-year spread for bunched income.(Federal Tax)
December 1, 2003... Rev. Proc. 2003-79, IRB 2003-45, Nov. 10, 2003, allows partners and S corporation shareholders to elect a four-year spread for their income from their partnership's or S corp's short year resulting from a change in tax year by the partnership...