The Michigan Association of Certified Public Accountants is the leading statewide professional organization dedicated to promoting and enhancing the value of the CPA profession. Our more than 19,000 members work in business, education, government and public accounting. Established in 1901, MICPA members serve as trusted advisors for businesses and individuals while embracing the highest standards of professional and ethical performance. For more information, visit www.micpa.org.
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The PPP came into being as part of the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act, P.L. 116-136, which was signed into law March 27. With the coronavirus shutting down much of the U.S. economy, Congress created the PPP to assist millions of small businesses suddenly facing an uncertain future.
Life Insurance is a proactive and cost-effective way to protect your family and your finances. It helps ensure your short and long-term financial obligations could be met if something unforeseen happens to you. When Helen lost her mom, she learned a valuable lesson that she’s paying forward to her boys.
The whistleblower program amendments provide a mechanism for whistleblowers with potential awards of less than $5 million, subject to certain criteria, to qualify for a presumption that they will receive the maximum statutory award amount. Awards of less than $5 million historically have represented nearly 75% of all whistleblower awards.
A new school year has just begun amid the confusion and uncertainty of COVID-19. While health and safety are top of mind, this crisis has reminded us of the importance of learning as an integral part of our lives, underscoring the value of lifelong learning. Whether you are an accounting and finance undergraduate student or a mid-career professional, you are likely pondering what skills you should be learning, and what competitive edge you need to build to unlock added value.
As the MICPA Board of Directors enters a new annual term, we are happy to welcome, Kathy Petroni, Matthew Kidd, CPA, and Stacey Reeves to the 2020-2021 board session. The year ahead promises new challenges, and the MICPA will look to its board to act upon opportunities in the interests of its members. With the addition of their cumulative experience, the MICPA is excited to see where the year and our new directors will take us.
This week, the MICPA Board of Directors welcomes the start of a new annual session and is pleased to welcome new board chair, Frank Maselli, Assurance Partner at EY. A long-standing member of the MICPA, Frank boasts over 30 years of experience with professional services firms and more than 10 years as a consultant for entrepreneurs as Program Director of the EY Entrepreneur of the Year Program and Growth Markets Leader for the Detroit practice.
Because of COVID-19, the percentage of remote workers jumped from 31% to 62% in a matter of a few weeks. If the coronavirus outbreak caused your business to experiment with remote work, you might be considering transitioning to a fully remote office.
Now on its way to the full Senate for consideration, Senate Bill 1035 aims to allow partnerships to pay tax at the partnership level or push out audit adjustments to their partners upon receipt of a federal audit adjustment which declares they owe additional dollars. The bill is a result of the Bipartisan Budget Act (BBA) which changed federal tax assessments of partnerships from the partner level to the partnership level. As Michigan still subscribes to the pass-through method, accounting for profits and losses of partnerships on the individual or corporate income tax returns of the partners, SB 1035 will give partnerships in Michigan the opportunity to square up any differences with the state that may occur as a result of a federal audit performed at the partnership level, according to Senator Jim Runestad, who sponsored the bill. To ensure the bill contained clear, concise language, Sen. Runestad sought the insight and expertise of MICPA members who specialize in partnership audits. By drawing upon the experience of our members, he was able to gather CPA feedback on how to present the bill in a way that affected taxpayers could easily understand. Kurt Piwko, a partner in Plante Moran’s National Tax Office who provided feedback on the bill, commented, “The input of the MICPA was invaluable in making sure that the process envisioned by SB 1035 would work as smoothly as possible.”
Last week, Wolter Kluwer CCH suffered an outage on Sept. 15 due to a technical issue stemming from CCH’s e-file system, according to the Journal of Accountancy. To make matters worse, practitioners were experiencing corrupted data issues with previously saved returns already prepped for filing. As Sept. 15 was a major deadline for several filers, including S corporations and partnerships, missing this deadline is potentially devastating to taxpayers already struggling with other pandemic-related issues.