California CPA

National Impact

As CalCPA's Litigation sections celebrates its 10th anniversary, its services to the profession, roster of experts and national influence continues to grow. Interest in the committee was always strong, but it really exploded about 10 years ago. We were too popular for our own good and couldn't welcome every interested CalCPA member, says Everett P. Harry III, CPA, the 1993-95 chair of the Litigation Services State Committee and owner of San Francisco-based Harry + Torchiana. As the original s...

Careers at Your Fingertips: Calcpa.Org Classifieds

Answer the Call: Volunteer Before Disaster Strikes

Foundation Honors Instructors

Proposed Sas: Omnibus-2006

Cpe Week in Las Vegas

Free Staff Retention Dvd

Tipra Revamps Oic Program

Employers Take Note: Withholding Lock-in Letters

Schedules M-3 for 2006

Validating Fsa, Hra Claims On Cards

Final Interpretation On Accounting for Income Taxes

Staff Position Issued On Leveraged Leases

And the Emmy Goes To... E&Amp;Y at the Emmys

Iasb, Fasb Form Leasing Project, Create Working Group

Changes to Executive Compensation Disclosure

Audit Alert On Options Backdating

Form 5500: Final Rule On E-Filing and Proposed Improvements

New Guidance On Qualifying Opeb Plan Trusts and Fiduciaries

Guidance for Smaller Companies

Nasba Launches Resource Website

Membermilestones

In Memoriam

Cba Interprets 54.1

The California Board of Accountancy has published Frequently Asked Questions related to Rule 54.1 regarding client confidentiality and the CPA's obligation to protect client information. CPAs should review these answers carefully to ensure that they are in compliance. According to the California Board, if confidential information is disclosed to an outside third party, written permission from the client is required. The approval always should be secured in advance of the disclosure. Written c...

Ftb Focus On Oic

CalCPA member Jim Counts recently attended a meeting of the State Bar Tax Procedure Committee with Kurt Arico, manager of the Franchise Tax Board's Offer in Compromise program. Any CPA or attorney with OIC issues should contact Arico, who's aiming to make the FTB's OIC program more workable. At the meeting, Arico mentioned that forms for the OIC program can be obtained from www.ftb.ca.gov. A newspaper reporter's inquiry regarding the Board of Equalization was recently posted on the TaxTalk li...

Eschew Escheat

Though escheat, also known as abandoned/unclaimed property (AUP) or sometimes the "hidden tax," has been around since this country's inception, many practitioners and business executives have never heard of this oft-considered contentious state law. Escheat is a process wherein the state takes possessory interest in an owner or apparent owner's property and holds the property into perpetuity on behalf of the owner or apparent owner until it is claimed by the owner or the owner's heirs. AUP ha...

The Insider

When CPAs think about retiring and selling their practices, one of their first questions is: To whom can I sell my practice? There are two primary answers: Select someone in the firm or bring a likely successor into the firm, or find a third party, such as another firm or sole practitioner. The AICPA has provided some tips on how to groom future firm leaders. In the case of internal succession, the purchase price for an owner's interest is usually based on either a percentage or multiple of t...

Celebrity Deductions

Celebrities often pay extraordinary legal fees. Huge legal fees should prompt celebrities and their advisers to ask: Are such whopping fees deductible? And if so, how? Legal expenses are deductible as business expenses if paid in a trade or business. Deductions for trade or business expenses are much more useful than deductions for investment expenses because of various percentage limitations and the alternative minimum tax. Legal expenses of a personal nature yield no deduction. Yet, what is...

Safety First

Managers or owners of businesses - including CPA firms - may not regard their work environments as health and safety hazards, but Occupational Safety and Health Administration and California Division of Occupational Safety and Health regulations are applicable to all worksites, including office environments. Understanding OSHA's jurisdiction, and your company's coverage under OSHA, is an important initial step in determining what safety and health measures should be taken in your workplace. I...