By Daniel Hood Published December 06 2017, 2:04pm EST The accounting profession will change beyond recognition over the next 10 years, according to American Institute of CPAs president and CEO Barry Melancon—except he really thinks it will come much more quickly than that. “I really mean five years, but people get scared when I say that,” he said during a keynote address on “The State of the Profession” at the 2017 Digital CPA Conference, held in San Francisco by AICPA technology subsidiary CPA.com. “In a world in which everything is changing, who are we to believe that we won’t have to change as well?” he asked. “The speed of change in…

By  Edward Mendlowitz, CPA/PFS, ABV December 2017 Many CPAs and most tax specialists perform personal financial planning (PFP) services; the AICPA estimates that more than 100,000 of its members perform some form of PFP for clients. The AICPA tried to unify and formalize PFP services with a credential—the Personal Finance Specialist (PFS)—but it doesn’t seem to have gained the wide acceptance it should have, based on the importance of these services. Essentials of Personal Financial Planning is a textbook aimed at reaching graduate students with an organized protocol of how to perform PFP services. More than that, it has excellent coverage of the entire range of these services and is an effective guide…

By Edward Mendlowitz Published November 13 2017, 11:45am EST Last week I conducted a breakfast meeting of the Withum Partners’ Network and I was asked a question that was not answered, so I’ll answer it in this column. Before I start, this meeting used a format I had never employed before. It was a “show and tell” roundtable in which each participant would raise practice management issues they had and would also share best practices they use successfully. The two hours seemed to fly by and everyone seemed to leave with ideas they could immediately implement. I know I did. A question raised early on is why tax season is…

By Michael Cohn Published November 03 2017, 3:58pm EDT The tax reform bill introduced by House Republicans doesn’t give the low 25 percent income tax rate for pass-through businesses to accounting firms and other professional service firms, and the rules for getting around it are complicated. “The anti-abuse provisions for the reduction in the pass-through rate appear to be very complicated, so professional services firms will get no break,” said Bill Smith, managing director at CBIZ MHM and leader of the firm’s National Tax Office. “If you’re not a professional services firm, it appears you have an election. You can treat 70 percent as wages, and 30 percent subject to…

By Edward Mendlowitz, Accounting Today October 9, 2017 The reality of being a partner in a firm, regardless of the size, is that you are running a “one-partner business.” That is so since it is your responsibility to manage the relationship with your clients, staff it, see that the deliverable reaches the client on time and coordinate everything to make that occur, that the pricing of your services is agreed to and paid when due. You also are responsible for budgeting the work and the realization and making sure the proper mix of staff are assigned and doing what they are supposed to be doing. You ensure that coordination with other…