Update From AICPA Council Meeting

AICPA Council is meeting in Washington, D.C., right now, focusing on legislative issues affecting the profession and visits with U.S. senators and representatives. The issues CPAs will be communicating in personal visits to legislators include:

• Financial services industry regulation
• Turning to CPAs as the trusted advisors during the economic crisis
• Tax strategy patents
• Mobile workforce

CPAs are asking federal legislators to use the CPA profession as a resource when considering new regulation of the financial service industry. The AICPA’s position is to add reasonable regulation of certain entities, such as hedge funds, and to consider thresholds and custodial relationships.

Virginia Rep. Rick Boucher (D-9th) has agreed to introduce a bill again this session to prohibit patents on tax strategies. The House passed a similar bill last session, but it never made it through the Senate. The AICPA is advocating a swift passage of the new bill this year.

The mobile workforce issue relates to the ability of an individual to temporarily work across state lines without needing to file an income tax return in that state. The legislation, supported by the AICPA, would establish a national standard for withholding state income taxes for nonresident workers. Currently, 41 states tax out-of-state workers’ wages, but the rules are not consistent from state to state.

Finally, CPAs are going to Capitol Hill to advocate the CPA profession as the nation’s most trusted advisors during this time of economic distress. CPAs are promoting the profession in the eyes of lawmakers as professionals who can help educate the public and find solutions to the nation’s economic problems.