This month’s update includes an update on conformity, information on a political party event, a member’s political outreach, Accountancy Board appointments and information from this month’s Accountancy Board meeting, and a PAC update.

CPAs at times come under fire from banks and other lenders pressuring them to provide assurances regarding their clients’ financial strength. Many CPAs have shared their frustrations and concerns with CAMICO regarding veiled threats from aggressive brokers and lenders alleging that their clients will not qualify for a loan without receiving a letter from the CPA supporting the client’s loan qualifications. Some brokers have even suggested that the client should seek a “more cooperative” CPA

This month’s update includes information on the repeal of auditor rotation/restrictions, information on Arizona’s universal recognition of occupational licenses, our Operation Conformity updates, an Accountancy Board update and a PAC update.

This month’s update includes information on our conformity broadcasted call and media engagement, repealing auditor rotation/restrictions activity, four deregulation bills, a political party event and a reminder of this month’s CPA license renewal due date.

A lot of confusion related to Section 199A relates to confusion regarding the use of words that now have very specific technical meaning and either attempting to talk about issues using the word when one party doesn't mean the technical term or CPAs attempting to take a technical term out of its very limited technical context and using it in an unrelated area.

This month’s update includes a request for Congressional delegation connections; information on federal income tax conformity; legislation related to deregulation, tax and audit; information on a meeting with the Arizona Department of Revenue; and an update from this month’s State Board of Accountancy meeting.

The IRS sent this press release about the 2019 tax-filing season on Jan. 29, 2019.

When the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA) was passed, it affected millions of individual taxpayers and tax preparers. As part of its implementation, the IRS adjusted its withholding tables. However, the adjusted withholding tables did not account for factors such as the elimination of personal and dependency exemptions or reduced itemized deductions. The result: many taxpayers have been unable to accurately calculate their tax liability for 2018 and may have inadvertently under-withheld their taxes. Recently, the AICPA sent a letter to the Department of Treasury and the IRS urging them to provide more extensive relief to taxpayers.

As this year’s tax filing season approaches, the AICPA and the Arizona Society of CPAs are receiving questions from members about the impact of the government shutdown on the IRS. Continuing the profession’s long-standing role as a resource to the IRS, the AICPA recently sent a letter to the Secretary of the Treasury and the IRS Commissioner expressing concern that the ongoing shutdown is burdening taxpayers and practitioners as they attempt to file complete and accurate tax returns. The letter identifies some of the more common challenges CPAs are already facing and offers recommendations to mitigate the long-term impact of the shutdown where appropriate.

This month’s update includes information on Arizona’s legislative session, ASCPA’s legislative podcast with Ryan DeMenna, an update on Accountancy Board rules and information from this month’s Accountancy Board meeting.