Legislation Recap

By Monica J. Rebella, CPA

Hello fellow colleagues. If you are in public accounting like me—yippee! Busy season is over and the recovery has started!

Seriously, I hope everyone is taking or going to take off some time to relax and reinvigorate, as well as re-introduce yourself to family and friends after a long busy season. And all of you not in public accounting I hope you take some time off this summer as well. My goodness, we all deserve it!

This is my last President’s Message, and I complete my themes of sharing knowledge and experiences with an update on California legislation, which will effect our profession, from my conversation with Jeannie Tindel, CalCPA’s director of legislation. The people in our government relations department do a terrific job of keeping on top of legislation in Sacramento that is affecting our profession, including research, FAQs, watching for news articles that are inaccurate and responding, (including the OC Register’s article on SB 691 last week), sending announcements out to us, and attending hearings on the various legislation. Thank you!

SB 691: 150-Hour Education Requirement
This bill would bring California into conformity with 46 other states. Some states passed this law 30 years ago and not one state has implemented a repeal. It is fast becoming a national standard that, if not implemented here, could prevent California CPA from serving clients in other states. Sen. Leland Yee (D, San Francisco) is the bill’s author.

All state CPA societies; the AICPA; the Asian, Latino, and African American CPA societies; plus others support this bill. The Senate Business, Professions and Economic Development Committee approved the bill 7-0 April 27. SB 691 will now move to the Senate Appropriations Committee. If it clears that committee, it would then go to the Senate floor.

We ask that you write Sen. Lou Correa, he is from our area, and thank him for voting for SB 691: Honorable Lou Correa; California State Senate; State Capitol; Sacramento, CA 95814

AB 129: Protect CPA –Taxpayer Privilege
This bill will continue California’s conformity with federal Internal Revenue Code Sec. 7525 regarding confidentially privileges relating to taxpayer communications. IRC Sec. 7525 was enacted as part of the 1998 Taxpayer Bill of Rights and inadvertently allowed to sunset in December 2008. This bill is out of Judiciary and Assembly moving to Appropriations and the floor hopefully by June 2009.

SB 117: Inactive CPAs
Inactive CPAs must put “Inactive” next to their CPA designation if they use CPA. This bill has little to no opposition and is moving along in the Senate.

There are 2 other Senate bills, which CalCPA supports: one that supports the California Board of Accountancy Peer Review requirement, and one that provides an exemption for CPAs providing fiduciary services.

Please mark your calendars and join us for upcoming special events.

• May 14: Chapter Mixer at CODE restaurant in Newport Beach.
  This will be a great opportunity to see your fellow CPAs again and discuss how your businesses are doing and share some tips.
• May 19: 40th Annual Golf Tournament
  We need golfers—come play.
• Sept. 8–Nov. 3: Fall Seminar Series

In closing, I thank Nancy Wilson, our chapter’s program associate, for the hard work and support she has provided me this year. She really drives the success of our chapter. I also thank all the other officers, board of directors, interest group chairs, and Gary Hammond, our program director, for their many hours of hard work for our chapter and their support.

My last comments are to thank all of you for allowing me to serve as your chapter president. It has been a pleasure and an honor, which I will treasure.

Your humble president,
— Monica Rebella, CPA

This entry was posted on Monday, May 11th, 2009 at 4:25 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. 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.