California CPA

Browse past and current articles from this publication.

While accounting did not cause the (current financial) crisis.(news&trends)
"While accounting did not cause the (current financial) crisis, and accounting will not end it, it did reveal a number of areas requiring improvement in standards and overall transparency." --FASB . . .

Tough times, drastic measures?(news&trends)
What has the economy done to employee morale? A recent survey tried to gauge employees' mindsets during this tough economy and found: * Pay cuts: 18% of respondents said they would be willing to . . .

Waikiki beach Marriott Resort & Spa.(MEMBER SPECIAL)
Waikiki Beach Marriott Resort & Spa is offering an exclusive discount to CalCPA members of $159 a night, plus taxes. The rate is good for single or double occupancy in a City View room by using th . . .

The numbers.(news&trends)
45 Percent of small-business owners surveyed nationwide who said that the businesses they operate are not profitable. --George S. May International 33. Percent of CFOs surveyed who said that . . .

Camico news: new insurance service for large California firms.(news&trends)
Large California firms that are not with CAMICO might want to reconsider in light of a new program established between CAMICO and Liberty International Underwriters, a division of Liberty Mutual Gro . . .

CalCPA: member discounts.(AFFINITY PROGRAMS)
Don't forget the wide variety of services--from HR, debt collection, billing and background screening services to insurance deals, CPA Exam review course and tax software discounts--offered by CalCP . . .

Guidance: return preparer penalties.(IRS News)
A May 8, 2009, Interim Guidance Memorandum SBSE-04-0509-009 on preparer penalty procedures for estate and gift tax cases was issued by the IRS Small Business/Self-Employed Division. This interim gui . . .

IASB proposes: improvements to financial instruments accounting.(news&trends)
The International Accounting Standards Board has published for public comment an exposure draft of proposals to improve financial instrument accounting. The proposals form part of the IASB's compreh . . .

Don't forget to report offshore bank income.(FTB)(Financial report)
The FTB is reminding taxpayers that are filing an amended federal tax return to correctly report income related to offshore bank accounts or other offshore activity to file an amended return with Ca . . .

Nonprofits may be allowed net interest deduction.(FTB)
California provides special tax incentives to encourage investment in Enterprise Zones specific areas within the state targeted for economic revitalization. One of these deduction available to banks . . .

The IRS wants to know.(news&trends)
The IRS has expanded its lists of "transactions of interest" and "listed transactions" that taxpayers must disclose if they are participating in them. Find out more at www.calcpa.org/IRS_Interest. . . .

Taxpayer Advocate's mid-year report to Congress.(news&trends)
Taxpayer Advocate Nina E. Olson's report states that the Office of the Taxpayer Advocate will focus on: working with the IRS to improve taxpayer services, enhancing IRS oversight of federal tax retu . . .

Timing of certain non-U.S. inspections.(news&trends)
The PCAOB has adopted an amendment to a rule on the timing of certain inspections of registered non-U.S. public accounting firms. The amendment gives the PCAOB the ability to postpone, for up to thr . . .

Improving financial reporting transparency.(news&trends)
FASB is seeking comments on an exposure draft of Disclosures about the Credit Quality of Financing Receivables and the Allowance for Credit Losses. Respondents are asked to comment on whether they b . . .

Converting a California LLC to a corporation.(news&trends)
Does your client want to convert its LLC to a corporation? Converting an LLC into a corporation can be almost as easy as checking a box. If an LLC classified as a partnership wants to convert to a c . . .

Announcements.(membermilestones)
Greestein Rogoff Olsen & Co. hired Joshua Waldron as a manager of audit services ... Renee M. Cross, CPA has joined Rubens Nunnemaker LLP ... Cindy J.Y. Yu has joined Alvarez & Marsal. . . .

Accomplishments.(membermilestones)
Los Angeles City Council member Jack Weiss selected Janet Halbert to be the 5th District's recipient of the Pioneer Women Award for her work on behalf of cancer patients undergoing chemotherapy and . . .

Firm news.(membermilestones)
Frank, Rimerman + Co. LLP created more than 100 disaster preparedness kits in partnership with the American Red Cross Silicon Valley Chapter ... Woodland Hills-based firm gish SEIDEN was named one o . . .

Members in the news.(membermilestones)
The June 26 Wall Street Journal asked Joe Kovar's opinion of Build America Bonds ... Subprime mortgages and accountants was the focus of a June 25 article in Capital Weekly that included comments fr . . .

Attention all CPAs: changes to CPE requirements effective for Jan. 1, 2010 license renewals.(licensingnews)
the California Board of Accountancy is amending the section of the California Code of Regulations that governs continuing education and license renewal for CPAs to place ethics education at the fore . . .

Delivering the CPE you need.(licensingnews)
The CalCPA Education Foundation offers 800 live and online events in various formats, allowing you to choose the learning method that best suits your needs. With so many events to choose from each d . . .

Estate planning techniques for today's economy.
Estate planning techniques regarding the transfer of assets to heirs are especially beneficial now that interest rates are low. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] The following tactics can help your clients . . .

Nonpassive losses: new case treats losses from LLPs, LLCs as nonpassive.(Fed Tax)
In Garnett v. Commissioner, 132 TC No. 19, June 30, 2009, the Tax Court held that the taxpayers did not own their interest in LLPs and LLCs as limited partners. Therefore, the losses from these inte . . .

What the ARRA holds: working your clients through the recovery act.(taxupdate)
from stimulus payments to various tax credits, the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA) and the California budget bills cover a lot of ground and have something for just about every . . .

Upcoming events.(Calendar)
2009 CE WEEKS Monterey CE Week Aug. 24-28: All the charm of small town America with an endless variety of recreational and cultural activities. Earn up to 40 hours of CPE. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTE . . .

New watchdog? Bill proposes Consumer Financial Protection Agency.(CapitolBeat)
President Obama's plan to create the Consumer Financial Protection Agency was rolled out July 8 in HR 3126 (Rep. Barney Frank, D-Mass). The proposal is a massive overhaul, consolidation and centrali . . .

Combining financial statements independent auditor's report 2008 to 2009.(2009 annual report)
CalCPA TREASURER'S REPORT CalCPA finished its first century solidly. This last year presented a number of challenges both financially and to the profession. We met those challenges and we are read . . .

Notes to the combining financial statements: (Amounts Expressed In Thousands).(2009 annual report)
1. ORGANIZATION AND SIGNIFICANT ACCOUNTING POLICIES The California Society of Certified Public Accountants (Society) is a nonprofit incorporated membership organization whose purpose is to advance . . .

Serving the public.(finalentry)
It's easy to understand why Gary Condie, CPA, received CalCPA's 2009 Public Service Award. He is a founding member of the Santa Clarita Valley Facilities Foundation, where he's also board vice presi . . .

Shareholders.(news & trends)
"I believe the meaningful ability of shareholders to nominate directors is intricately linked to the ability of shareholders to hold directors accountable for their compensation decisions." --SEC . . .

CPAs on IFRS.(news & trends)
What do CPAs think about the development of international financial reporting standards? 36% want advanced or expert knowledge, meaning they would become very familiar with the specific principles . . .

Affinity programs.(CalCPA Member Discount)
Don't forget to take advantage of the wide variety of services--from HR, debt collection, billing and background screening services to insurance deals, CPA Exam review course and tax software discou . . .

The numbers.(news & trends)
5 Percent of CFOs surveyed who expect to hire full-time employees during the third quarter, while 8 percent anticipate personnel reductions. --Robert Half 45 Percent of business leaders poll . . .

150-hour update: and then there were two.(Legislative Update)
With Vermont and New Hampshire adopting the 150-hour education requirement for licensure, California and Colorado are the only two remaining states licensing CPAs that do not meet the rest of the na . . .

In other legislative efforts.(Legislative Update)
* AB 117 [Niello], CalCPA's Licensing status disclosure bill, has passed the Senate Business, Professions and Economic Development Committee. * AB 129 (Ma), a bill to re - enact the taxpayer privi . . .

CalCPA's Public Service Awards.
Firm: BPM Gives Back to the Community Burr, Pilger and Mayer was awarded CalCPA's 2009 Public Service Award for Firms, which aims to recognize firms for their public service contributions on the l . . .

CalCPA XBRL resources.(Member Tools)
As the rest of the world rushes to use extensible business reporting language (XBRL) for generating financial statements, it's becoming increasingly important for California CPAs to learn all they c . . .

Helping your clients: avoid tax bills next April.
The FTB is advising taxpayers to plan ahead for changes to the state's personal income tax rates and exemption credits for the 2009 calendar year. A new tax law raises California's personal income t . . .

OK to issue review or comp when independence is impaired.
Comments are being accepted until July 31 regarding the AICPA Accounting and Review Services Committee's proposed revision of Statements on Standards for Accounting and Review Services. The revision . . .

Foreclosure leeway.
Effective July 1, California is imposing a 90-day moratorium on housing foreclosures under the California Foreclosure Prevention. Act. The law is expected to make lenders try harder to keep borrow . . .

'Subsequent events' guidance from FASB.
FASB's Statement No. 165, Subsequent Events, intends to establish general standards of accounting for, and disclosure of, events that occur after the balance sheet date, but before financial stateme . . .

FASB launches Accounting Standards Codification.
As of July 1, FASB's Accounting Standards Codification is the single source of authoritative nongovernmental U.S. Generally Accepted Accounting Principles. The Codification will be effective for i . . .

Disaster publication gets a makeover.
Odds are, with the number of disasters to hit California, one of your clients has claimed a disaster loss on their California tax return. The FTB recently revised its disaster publication, FTB Pub 1 . . .

72% of employers.
72% of employers have increased their use of intranet since the economic downtown began. . . .

Changing the Accounting for securitizations and special-purpose entities.
FASB has published Financial Accounting statements No. 166, Accounting for Transfers of Financial Assets, and No. 167, Amendments to FASB Interpretation No. 46[R], which both change the way entities . . .

New statistics of income Bulletin.
The spring 2009 issue of the Statistics of Income Bulletin, which features information on high-income individual income tax returns filed for tax year 2006, is available at www.calcpa.org/SOIB. . . .

FTB changes: LLC fee claim process, collecting on child support dual liability cases.(FTB)
All existing accounting standard documents are superseded and all other accounting literature not included in the Codification will be considered nonauthoritative. Learn more at www.calepa.org/cod . . .

IRS proposes tax return preparer review.(FTB)
IRS Commissioner Doug Shulman announced that, by the end of 2009, he will propose a comprehensive set of recommendations to help the IRS better leverage the tax return preparer community with the tw . . .

CITP credential revision.
The AICPA recently revised the requirements to obtain the Certified Information Technology Professional credential to include: * A valid unrevoked CPA license. * Five years of experience in the . . .

IASB fair value draft guidance.
The International Accounting Standards Board is accepting comments until Sept. 28 on its exposure draft of fair value measurement guidance. If adopted, the proposals would replace the guidance conta . . .