Accountant .org

Bicycle.net notes:

Employers of people who bicycle to work stand to gain a $20 per month tax credit per cycling employee, according to the Senate’s version of the Wall Street bailout bill, H.R. 1424.

The bill passed yesterday by a vote of 74 for and 25 against the bill and now goes to the House for a vote. The bicycle tax provision was part of an additional $110 billion in line items added to the already $700 billion bailout package.

Read the rest at

Senate Bailout Bill… to Benefit Bikers for $20/mo?

About 1.3 million accountants and auditors work throughout private industry and government, with over 20 percent of them employed by accounting, tax preparation, bookkeeping, and payroll services firms. Nearly one in ten are self-employed, and some teach part time in addition to their primary job.

The increasing popularity of tax preparation firms and computer software will shift accountants away from tax preparation. As computer programs continue to simplify some accounting-related tasks, clerical staff will increasingly handle many routine calculations.

Most accountants work in urban areas, where public accounting firms and central or regional business offices are concentrated.

Training and Advancement

In the aftermath of the accounting scandals, professional certification is even more important to ensure that accountants’ credentials and knowledge of ethics are sound. Applicants with a master’s degree in accounting or an MBA with a concentration in accounting have an advantage in the job market along with those having expertise in specialized areas, such as international business, specific industries, or current legislation. Professional recognition through certification or a designation other than CPA also provides a distinct advantage.

Many senior corporate executives have a background in accounting, internal auditing or finance. Beginning public accountants often advance to positions with more responsibility in one or two years and to senior positions within another few years. Those who excel may become supervisors, managers or partners; open their own public accounting firm; or transfer to executive positions in private firms.

Management accountants often start as cost accountants, junior internal auditors, or trainees for other accounting positions. As they rise through the organization, they may advance to accounting manager, chief cost accountant, budget director, or manager of internal auditing. Some become controllers, treasurers, financial vice presidents, chief financial officers, or corporation presidents.
Work Environment

Most accountants work in a typical office setting, and technological advancements now enable more work to be done from home. Accountants employed by public accounting firms, government agencies, and organizations with multiple locations may travel frequently to clients’ places of business or government facilities.

Most accountants work a standard 40-hour week, but many work longer hours, particularly if they are self-employed and have numerous clients. Tax specialists often work long hours during the tax season.

Accountants help ensure that companies are run efficiently, their public records are accurate, and that tax liabilities are paid on time. They analyze and communicate financial information for private corporations, individuals, and government agencies. Many accountants also offer personal budget analysis, financial and investment planning, asset management, retirement planning, technology consulting, and limited legal services.

Specific job duties vary widely among the major fields of accounting:

Public Accountants perform a broad range of accounting, auditing, tax, and consulting activities for all types of clients, however, federal legislation now restricts the non-auditing services that public accountants can provide to clients. If an accounting firm audits a client’s financial statements, that firm cannot provide advice on human resources, technology, investment banking or legal matters.

Management Accountants – also called cost, managerial, industrial, corporate, or private accountants – record and analyze companies’ financial information, using it to prepare financial reports for executives and others, including stockholders, creditors, regulatory agencies, and tax authorities.

Government Accountants work in the public sector, maintaining and examining the records of government agencies. Accountants employed by federal, state, and local governments ensure that revenues are received and expenditures are made in accordance with current laws and regulations.

Technology is rapidly changing the nature of most accounting work. Specialized software has greatly simplified the processing of data for financial analysis, and advanced accounting packages eliminate much of the tedious work associated with data management and record keeping.
Job Requirements

People planning a career in accounting should have an aptitude for mathematics and be able to analyze, compare, and interpret facts and figures quickly. They must be able to clearly communicate the results of their work, and be good at working with people, business systems and computers. At a minimum, accountants should be familiar with basic accounting and computer software packages. Because financial decisions are made on the basis of their statements and services, accountants must have high ethical standards.

Most accountant positions require at least a bachelor’s degree in accounting or a related field, with a master’s degree preferred. Some colleges now offer programs to prepare students to work in growing specialties, such as internal auditing.

Some graduates of junior colleges or business schools, as well as bookkeepers and accounting clerks who meet their employers’ education and experience requirements, can obtain junior accounting positions and advance to accountant positions by demonstrating their skills on the job.

Certified public accountants (CPAs) are licensed by their state Board of Accountancy after passing a national exam and meeting the other requirements of the state where they practice. Most states require CPA candidates to be college graduates.

California is one of 42 states requiring CPA candidates to complete 150 semester hours of college coursework – an additional 30 hours beyond the usual four-year bachelor’s degree. In response to this trend, many schools now offer master’s degrees as part of the 150 hours. Prospective accounting majors should carefully research accounting curricula and the requirements of any state in which they hope to become licensed.

The Wall Street Journal reports:

Outside a handful of majors — engineering and some of the sciences — a bachelor’s degree tells an employer nothing except that the applicant has a certain amount of intellectual ability and perseverance. Even a degree in a vocational major like business administration can mean anything from a solid base of knowledge to four years of barely remembered gut courses.

The solution is not better degrees, but no degrees. Young people entering the job market should have a known, trusted measure of their qualifications they can carry into job interviews. That measure should express what they know, not where they learned it or how long it took them. They need a certification, not a degree.

The model is the CPA exam that qualifies certified public accountants. The same test is used nationwide. It is thorough — four sections, timed, totaling 14 hours. A passing score indicates authentic competence (the pass rate is below 50%). Actual scores are reported in addition to pass/fail, so that employers can assess where the applicant falls in the distribution of accounting competence. You may have learned accounting at an anonymous online university, but your CPA score gives you a way to show employers you’re a stronger applicant than someone from an Ivy League school.

The merits of a CPA-like certification exam apply to any college major for which the BA is now used as a job qualification. To name just some of them: criminal justice, social work, public administration and the many separate majors under the headings of business, computer science and education. Such majors accounted for almost two-thirds of the bachelor’s degrees conferred in 2005. For that matter, certification tests can be used for purely academic disciplines. Why not present graduate schools with certifications in microbiology or economics — and who cares if the applicants passed the exam after studying in the local public library?

Can’t agree more. The only value of an elite college is that of the contacts one makes. The quality of the education is not superior to a state university.

The accounting scandals of the past decade put a spotlight on the critical role that accountants play in protecting employees and the general public against corporate fraud and malfeasance. Congressional legislation to prevent future WorldCom and Enron-type meltdowns, particularly the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002, forced the government and private industry to expand their employment of accountants and auditors to provide a higher level of reporting and oversight.

Increased scrutiny of company finances and accounting procedures will continue to create opportunities for accountants, particularly CPAs. Management accountants and internal auditors are also in higher demand to discover and eliminate fraud before audits. Efforts to make government agencies more efficient and accountable will increase demand for government accountants. And the government’s watchdog role requires forensic accountants to detect illegal financial activity by individuals, companies, and organized crime rings.

Strong growth of accountant jobs is expected over the next decade. Employment of accountants and auditors combined is expected to grow by a quarter-million jobs between 2006 and 2016, faster than the average for all occupations. Continued expansion of the number of businesses, changing financial laws and corporate governance regulations, and increased accountability for protecting an organization’s stakeholders will drive growth. Increased demand also arises from annual changes in the tax code, financial reporting standards, and business mergers and acquisitions.

The Internal Revenue Service has discovered a scam in Georgia involving filing a federal income tax return to get a refund on Social Security taxes paid.

The IRS said the scheme usually works by the victim paying the scam operator a fee for preparation of a false refund claim and possibly a percentage of any refund received. This hoax fleeces the victims for the up-front preparation fee. Plus, the law does not allow such a refund of Social Security taxes paid, so participants could be subject to a penalty for filing a false tax return.

“The IRS is very concerned that some people in the metro Atlanta area have fallen for this scam,” said IRS spokesman Mark Green. “If something sounds too good to be true, it probably is. Getting a refund of Social Security taxes is generally not an option and, in this case, it’s not legal.”

The federal government discovered the scam when workers in the Atlanta IRS office noticed several people coming in and asking for copies of their Social Security income statements. When questioned, some of the people explained a person was preparing refund claims for them.

The IRS said it is still gathering information and working to stop the scam. But taxpayers who got a refund from one of the false claims before the scam was detected must return the funds. If they have cashed the check, the IRS said it will usually work with them to arrange an immediate return of the funds.

Monty Python… at their peak.

Contrary to popular belief, accountancy expands far beyond taxes. As an individual or business owner, you should engage the services of a CPA based upon your specific needs as matched with the expertise of the CPA. With the proper match, a CPA can serve as a valuable resource. The following items can serve as a starting point in the process of engaging a CPA to assist with your individual or business matters.

• What are your needs? You should seek a CPA who meets your needs. Are you looking for tax compliance and planning? Looking for an audit, review, or compilation? Maybe a business valuation? Perhaps forensic accounting services? You wouldn’t want a veterinarian performing eye surgery on you, right?
• Ask for referrals. Once you know what you need, seek out referrals from others that you trust. Ask friends, business associates, and other professionals. However, proceed with caution. Just because someone knows of a quality CPA, it does not mean that the he is the proper fit for you.
• Ask questions. When you find a few CPAs that appear to match your needs, start asking questions. Make a list of the matters that are important to you. Such questions can address education, experience, specialties, and business philosophy. If you’re a business owner, seek out examples from the CPA as to how she has assisted others who have similar circumstances as you. The CPA should provide such examples in general terms. She shouldn’t reveal specific client transactions or other confidential data.
• Assess communication and comfort. Now that you feel confident that the CPA is appropriate for your specific circumstances, assess how well he communicates and evaluate your comfort level with him. How does he communicate? Is it high-level technical talk, or does he lay things out in an organized understandable format? Does he prefer email, phone, or in-person meetings? One way to gauge his communication skills is by the manner in which he responds to your questions. Is he irritated and short? Or is he professional and enthusiastic about having you as a potential client? If irritable now, can you imagine calling him during a crunch period to set up a meeting or to seek a special request?
• Don’t be concerned with location. Location may be important for selecting a house; however, location should not serve as a criterion for selecting a CPA. The office of a CPA is a not a barber shop to come chat and solve the world’s problems. By focusing only on location, you are foregoing the consideration of other selection criteria such as those mentioned above.

A CPA can serve as a valuable resource in the growth and efficient use of your financial resources. Seek one who is open and honest about both their qualifications and limitations. Feel confident that you are engaging a qualified professional for your specific circumstances that seeks your best interests.