May 2014 Newsletter

Lance Bodeen with Barry Melancon, AICPA President and Tommye Barie, AICPA Vice Chair at the President elect Conference last October. 

President's Message

 60 Years

How many Organizations can say that they have been around for 60 years? 

The Alaska Society of CPAs established itself in 1954 before the State of Alaska was even a State.

The purpose of the organization was:

1. To foster and promote rules for professional conduct;
2. To acquaint the business public to the need for better accounting records and the desirability of entrusting their accounting and tax matters to individuals who have demonstrated their ability to handle such problems by passing a rigid examination in accounting theory and practice, commercial law and income tax practice;
3. To assist the Territorial Board of Accountancy in ridding the accounting profession of “unqualified or unscrupulous individuals who prey upon the business public without regard to the consequences of their acts”; and
4. To encourage more Alaskans to enter the accounting profession and to assure them the prestige of an Alaska Certified Public Accountants degree would not be diminished.

The first organizational meeting was held in August of 1954. There were 11 members in 1954.

The inaugural members knew the value of profession and protecting the public.  They understood the importance of integrity and the need for guidelines to maintain this integrity to protect Alaskans.  Amazingly - the members had the foresight to establish an Organization to foster collaboration and education with fellow Certified Public Accountants.

I am grateful to the pioneers of the Profession in our State.

The preamble 60 years later for the Alaska Society of Certified Public Accountants reads as follows: 

The Alaska Society of Certified Public Accountants, Inc. exists for the following purposes:

1. To encourage the maintenance of high professional standards for Certified Public Accountants in the State of Alaska
2. To cultivate a cordial relationship among practicing Certified Public Accountants
3. To promote a better understanding on the part of the public of the services rendered by Certified Public Accountants
4. To act in a representative capacity for the profession.

After 60 years what has changed, not too much, other than our membership has grown substantially to 600 members.  We are still here to foster the same collaboration and education for CPAs, we are still here to protect Alaskans and maintain integrity in our profession, and we are still here to bring a level of service that is second to none.

            A big thank you again to those who have pioneered this Organization.

You as Members of the Alaska Society of CPAs have an opportunity to share your history and be part of something fantastic as we get ready for the Annual Meeting. 

The dates are May 28^th, 29^th, and 30^th.   

The Meeting Committee has established a fantastic agenda at a fabulous location.

I am personally inviting all of you to attend this event and celebrate 60 years!

Thank you.

Lance Bodeen, CPA

Report from AICPA Regional Meeting

By John Rodgers, CPA

I recently had the opportunity to represent Alaska at the AICPA Regional Council meeting in LA on March 21^st.  As usual this meeting provided some great discussions impacting our industry and updates on some important governmental relations issues.

AICPA President Barry Melancon started the meeting with great issues update for our industry.  He touched on the CPA reputation and the brand, the young CPA’s, legislative updates, and the future of learning to name a few.

Federal advocacy continues to be an uphill battle.  The good news is that we’re gaining some momentum on the Hill.  There are a record number of CPA’s in the House, 9 to be exact.  Other advocacy issues discussed include:

• Security class action cases – the US has more class action suits than any other country.
• Overtime Reform – Obama deferred this issue to the DOL to change
• Patent holding companies – pending legislation to make these illegal
• Tax Reform – A major tax reform bill is not going to pass.  Currently there is an outline of a bill but not a lot of movement on either side.
• Filing due dates – this proposed changed will more than likely not pass.
• Mobility workforce bill is moving forward and may pass
• PTIN – is still in flux and everything create to date is gone.  Congress is now being pushed to address this issue.  In the meantime, AICPA is concerned that some states are creating their own “PTIN” programs.

There was a great discussion on assessing peer review and practice monitoring.  Discussions centered on the regulatory challenges our industry faces. Complexity for our industry is at an all time high with issues rapidly evolving.  Regulations are becoming more and more empowered and bolder creating an environment of excessive regulations and issues for us.

One of the topics discussed was the CPA reputation.  A recent survey showed that CPA’s have the highest reputation and are first among financial professionals. Our professional rating is at its highest only 2^nd to doctors.  The survey also gathered the top 4 qualities they think CPA’s have which include competence, integrity, objectiveness and focusing on clients needs.  These happen to also be our core values.  

There are record numbers of accounting students entering the workforce yet the number of students taking the CPA exam has stayed flat.  There are many factors impacting this which include the difficulty of the exam, there requirement of the additional 150 semester hours, cost of the exam and the time to study.

The future of learning is evolving and AICPA is in looking to forge new learning requirements for the profession.  A task force has been created to address this new learning initiative, address the barriers, and lead this new learning evolution.  A focus will be placed on competency and compliance based approaches, the importance to having real time learning, and the changing needs due to technology demands of the learner.

There’s another meeting in May that will provide more detail on many of these issues.  If you would like any further information on the conference or items discussed in this report please feel free to email or call me direct.

 Best regards,

 John Rodgers

DATA Act Ready for President’s Signature Following Approval by House of Representatives 

Washington, D.C. (April 28, 2014) – The following is a statement by Barry C. Melancon, CPA, CGMA, president and CEO of the American Institute of CPAs(AICPA), in response to the U.S. House of Representatives’ approval of the Digital Accountability and Transparency (DATA) Act (S. 994):