Help legislators understand the issues facing California CPAs and sign up to attend CPA Day at the Capitol.  How can your presence help? Take a look at our successful 2011 advocacy efforts for an idea and read the experience of past participants.

Don’t underestimate the importance of your presence!

By Brooke Salvini

Who says CPA’s aren’t talented and humorous? Wishing you a wonderful and laughter filled 2012.

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Los Bank Auditors

http://youtu.be/NnFk4jnV5Es

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Accountants aren’t boring people. We just get excited over boring things.

Accountants do it without losing their balance.

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Where do homeless accountants live?
In a tax shelter.

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The Oldest Profession

A surgeon, CPA and a lawyer were arguing about which of them was practicing the oldest profession.

The surgeon said, “God created Eve from a rib from Adam. Obviously, God is a surgeon, so medicine is the oldest profession.”

The CPA protested. “Before God created Eve from Adam’s rib, he created an orderly universe from chaos. That clearly shows that God was an accountant before he was a surgeon. Accounting then has to be the oldest profession.”

The lawyer sat for a moment, smiling, looking at the surgeon and the CPA. “That may be true,” the lawyer said, shrugging his shoulders, “but who created the chaos?”

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Turbo Tax Rap

http://youtu.be/m9sfbqmb02A

Taxation with representation ain’t so hot either.

—Gerald Barzan, humorist

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Thank you for the opportunity to serve this past year as your chapter president. It has been a pleasure to work with many of you on various events and I appreciate the hours you’ve given to the chapter. Our last chapter meeting of 2011-12 will be held Jan. 10 at the Madonna Inn. Our topic will be Retirement Plans & IRAs: Inflows and Outflows. Unfortunately, we did not receive enough interest to charter the bus to CPA Day at the Capitol Jan. 18. Nevertheless, I hope to see some of you in Sacramento.

Help legislators understand the issues facing California CPAs and sign up to attend CPA Day at the Capitol. How can your presence help? Take a look at our successful 2011 advocacy efforts for an idea.

Don’t underestimate the importance of your presence!

Help legislators understand the issues facing California CPAs and sign up to attend CPA Day at the Capitol. How can your presence help? Take a look at our successful 2011 advocacy efforts for an idea.

Don’t underestimate the importance of your presence!

Work with your peers on projects that increase members’ technical knowledge, enhance the profession’s image and draw the best and brightest into accounting—all while you build leadership skills and make valuable contacts.

The application deadline is Dec. 31 and committee appointments will be made in January.

Learn more and apply online.

More information and applications are available online.

If state-level leadership isn’t your calling right now, there are plenty of opportunities at the chapter level—from board member to committee chair—to step up and showcase your skills. Find more information online.

The CalCPA Accounting Education Committee’s purpose is “to Improve accounting education in California through the collaboration of educators and practitioners.”  With that in mind, here are highlights of our Oct. 24 meeting.

As accounting practitioners and educators, you likely know that Senate Bill 819 became law in October 2009 and will be effective Jan. 1, 2014. The bill will eliminate Pathway 1 and change the education requirements that comprise Pathway 2. Specifically, SB 819 requires that an additional 30 of the 150 units (20 units in accounting related courses and 10 in ethics courses) of college education required under Pathway 2 be further defined in regulation.

With many deadlines and college classes starting, some of you may not be aware that Gov. Brown signed into law Senate Bill 773 Sept. 26. The primary purpose of this bill was to codify the ethics study guidelines for the 10 semester units of ethics study required for CPA licensure beginning Jan. 1, 2014.

The regulations to further define the other 20 units are still in the proposal stage, but are detailed enough to provide some hint as to the final requirements. To get more details view the helpful tip sheets and FAQs on the California Board of Accountancy website.

The importance of these new licensure education requirements are obvious to educators, but practitioners, especially those in smaller, local firms, may wonder how the new requirements will impact them.  There are a number of practitioner/firm representatives on the Accounting Education Committee and we heard from them how they are handling these changes.

The best way to focus on the new requirements, especially the ethics study, is what has to be met by candidates for licensure by 2014, by 2017 and after 2016. Until Jan. 1, 2014, candidates can be licensed in California by having passed the CPA Exam and under Pathway 1 completed two years of experience, or under Pathway 2 completed an additional 30 semester units (with no specifics as to content) and one year of experience.

From 2014 to 2017, a candidate can only be licensed under Pathway 2 and the additional units must include 20 semester units of more specific courses related to accounting and 10 units of a broad range of courses that contain some element of ethics (see links above).

After 2016, a candidate must have completed the same requirements as of Jan. 1, 2014, except the 10 units of courses related to ethics must include a minimum of three semester units in courses devoted to accounting ethics or accountants’ professional responsibilities. The CBA will be looking at titles to determine if requirements are met.

There are two issues for the practitioner/firm: One is related to new hires for the upcoming year and whether they will have the education requirements under Pathway 2 for the 2014 deadline because they will not have time to complete two years of experience under Pathway 1 before Jan. 1, 2014. The other relates to current staff members who are not yet licensed. Practitioners need to monitor their staff members who are not yet licensed to be sure they will have all the requirements for either Pathway 1 or 2 by Dec. 31, 2013.

Hopefully, students and staff are monitoring this important issue themselves. But it doesn’t hurt to make sure so you won’t have to be counseling staff on their future on Dec. 31, 2013.

Info: Debbie Wacker

Happy holidays everyone!

Hot chocolate …

A group of graduates, well established in their careers, were talking at a reunion and decided to visit their now retired university professor. During their visit, the conversation turned to complaints about stress in their work and lives. The professor went into the kitchen and returned with a large pot of hot chocolate and an assortment of cups—porcelain, glass, crystal, some plain looking, some expensive, some —and told them to help themselves to the hot chocolate.

When they all had a cup of hot chocolate in hand, the professor said: “Notice that all the nice looking, expensive cups were taken, leaving behind the plain and cheap ones. While it is normal for you to want only the best for yourselves, that is the source of your problems and stress. The cup that you’re drinking from adds nothing to the quality of the hot chocolate. In most cases, it is just more expensive and in some cases even hides what we drink. What all of you really wanted was hot chocolate, not the cup; but you consciously went for the best cups … and then you began eyeing each other’s cups.

“Now consider this: Life is the hot chocolate; your job, money and position in society are the cups. They are just tools to hold and contain life. The cup you have does not define or change the quality of life you have. Sometimes, by concentrating only on the cup, we fail to enjoy the hot chocolate God has provided us. God makes the hot chocolate; man chooses the cups. The happiest people don’t have the best of everything. They just make the best of everything that they have.

“Live simply. Love generously. Care deeply. Speak kindly. And enjoy your hot chocolate.”

Warmest wishes to you and your loved ones during this holiday season.