Bravery in the New Year

By Donna Bumgarner, CPA

I hope you all had a joyous holiday season and are ready to face the new year. I took up my own challenge and donated to Loaves and Fishes Family Kitchen and volunteered during the Christmas season. It was an enlightening experience to join with other volunteers in providing service to the San Jose community.

The 2010 Chinese New Year is the Year of the Tiger. It is said that the tiger is lucky, lively and engaging—

and also has incredible bravery. The Cowardly Lion from the Wizard of Oz would say that the tiger also has courage. I hope we all embrace these characteristics as we start the new year and, for many of us, our busy season.

As many of you know, four bills recently were signed into law that impact California CPAs. Our thanks go to Bruce Allen, Jeannie Tindel and Paul Regan and the rest of the government relations team for their bravery in Sacramento on behalf of our profession.

On a related note, continuing education (CE) requirements are changing in 2010. CPAs will now be required to have four hours of CE in ethics during every renewal period. Every six years, we must also take a two-hour regulatory review course covering the California Accountancy Act and the California Board of Accountancy regulations and enforcement actions. Additionally, CPAs must take a minimum of 20 hours of CE (including a minimum of 12 hours in technical subject matters) each year of the two-year license renewal period as part of the 80-hour CE requirement. You can find information on the new CE requirements on CalCPA’

s website.

We have an opportunity to help legislators understand issues that continue to face California CPAs during our upcoming CPA Day at the Capitol in Sacramento Jan. 20. As evidenced by bills that passed through the legislature last year, we all can make a difference by meeting with legislators on issues that impact us, our clients or our employers. A critical issue that is still being considered would require sales tax on personal services, such as the services that we as CPAs provide. For those who participate, CalCPA’

s Government Relations Division will schedule legislator appointments and will provide talking points for the meetings. You will be part of a group of other CPAs, one of who will serve as the main spokesperson. Please plan on attending this event and make a difference.

On the evening of Jan. 28, I ask that you join us as we recognize the 2010 Scholarship Award recipients, Lifetime Achievement Award recipient, Past Chapter Presidents and CalCPA Life Members at our 2010 Honorees’ Night. Attendance at the event will give you the opportunity to meet college students who benefit from the scholarship funds we’

ve raised over the past year at our ABC events and golf tournament.

Please feel free to contact me via e-mail or phone (408) 287-7911 if you have any questions or comments. I welcome your input.

This entry was posted on Monday, January 4th, 2010 at 12:04 pm 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.