CPAs have been especially busy in recent weeks counseling clients through the sudden economic challenges brought on by COVID-19. Because you’ll be communicating with a large number of your clients, this can be a timely opportunity to also remind them to update essential documents, such as living wills and power of attorney designations. During this […]

The IRS announced Monday it is hiring 3,500 new phone operators to answer taxpayers’ questions about economic impact payments (IR-2020-97). The IRS cautioned, however, that “telephone assistance and other services” will remain limited due to the COVID-19 pandemic. In March, the IRS announced that it was scaling back operations, closing offices, and having employees work […]

News PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT By Ken Tysiac {:else} {timeSince} {/if} {@if cond=”{isCGMA}”} {:else} {/if} {/.} The coronavirus pandemic has cut even more into the second-quarter testing window for the CPA Exam as Prometric announced Friday that its testing centers in the United States and Canada will remain closed through at least May 1. Earlier, Prometric had […]

FASB posted a staff Q&A document to its website Friday that is designed to clarify pandemic-related questions about lease accounting. As a result of economic disruptions caused by the pandemic, many lessors will provide lease concessions to tenants. The Q&A states that for concessions related to the effects of the coronavirus pandemic, an entity will […]

Taxpayers were granted additional, broad tax filing and payment deadline relief by the IRS late on Thursday, in line with relief requested by the AICPA over the past several weeks amid the coronavirus pandemic. The new relief, issued in Notice 2020-23, applies to all taxpayers that have a filing or payment deadline falling on or […]

A global pandemic. Unstable financial markets. Social isolation. Product shortages in some areas while others are no longer deemed essential. Opportunities for emergency funding. If there was ever a time when clients needed your guidance, expertise, and care, it is now. The time to shine as an adviser is right this minute. And, even though […]

The AICPA Auditing Standards Board (ASB) on Wednesday completed its yearlong effort to conform generally accepted auditing standards with the provisions of its new auditor reporting standards. The final step in the conforming process was the issuance of Statement on Auditing Standards No. 140, Amendments to AU-C Sections 725, 730, 930, 935, and 940 to […]

Late Monday night, Treasury and the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) released FAQs on the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP), the $349 billion small business relief program that is a key part of the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act, P.L. 116-136. Over the past week, the AICPA and our small business funding coalition […]

An AICPA-led small business funding coalition, in conjunction with the National Payroll Reporting Consortium, issued a statement supporting the use of gross payroll based on 2019 data in calculations for Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) pandemic relief loan applications. Applications opened Friday for the PPP, which was funded by the $2 trillion Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and […]

The Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (PCAOB) has released a new staff PCAOB Spotlight document, COVID-19: Reminders for Audits Nearing Completion, to provide important reminders to auditors of issuers and broker-dealers for audits nearing completion. Reasons for Issuance of the PCAOB Spotlight Explaining the decision to issue the new Spotlight, Chairman William D. Duhnke III said, […]