Ring Out the Old and Bring In the New

By Jamshed Behram Gandi, CPA

A new year has dawned, and I sincerely wish our members, board of directors and all at CalCPA a very happy new year. I am sure that the next 12 months will bring a new set of issues, challenges and changes. As the saying goes, “The only constant is change.”

In January I headed to Sacramento for CPA Day at the Capitol, which was followed by the CalCPA Council meeting. I will report on these two activities in next month’s Bulletin. The idea of instituting a sales tax on services is already being talked about at the legislative level, and this was a topic members discussed at length during our visit to legislators in Sacramento.

For CPAs, 2010 started with both a bang and a level of insanity. Talk about issues and challenges. Who would have thought—even as recently as three months ago—that at the stroke of midnight Jan. 1, amid the revelry and pomp of the new year festivities, the estate tax would pass into history! Even though its demise could be a short death, I am still amazed at the outcome. Glibly referred to as the “ throw your mama from the train” provision, this change is in effect and has thrown the entire estate tax community into a tailspin. This new twist on taxation is something that could keep CPAs who practice in this area very, very busy for months, if not years.

Until the next time, stay true to all those resolutions you took upon yourselves … we are barely into February.

This entry was posted on Friday, January 29th, 2010 at 11:59 am and is filed under President's Message. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.