INTERNATIONAL

Your Sales Tax Headaches Are Only Just Beginning

By

Watch the video or listen to the podcast.

Follow CPA Trendlines Podcasts on Apple Podcasts here or grab the RSS feed here.

With Rick Telberg
For CPA Trendlines

The changes wrought by COVID are rolling through the business world, pushing many of them into online commerce and cross-border sales and, ultimately, into new and nforeseen tax problems, according to Liz Armbruester, senior VP of global compliance at Avalara.

MORE: Six Fixable Problems at the IRS   |  IRS under COVID: Heroes or Goats?   |  IRS Loves e-Filing. So Why the Barriers?  |  Two Big (and Obvious) Ways IRS Could Work with Practitioners   |  Eight Ways to Charm a Client | Plug Small Leaks Before They Become Big Floods | You’re Only as Good as Your Last Screw-Up | Four Issues with ‘Quick’ Tax Questions | When to Pick Up the Phone This Tax Season | These Five Procedures Will Simplify Your Tax Season | 11 Steps to Better Client Tax Instructions
GoProCPA.comExclusively for PRO Members. Log in here or upgrade to PRO today.

From her perch, see tracks how governments at all levels and across the globe are capitalizing on the rapidly digitizing business world to automatically collect taxes due. In the U.S., states and localities are gearing up to crack down on the new sources of revenues, leaving many businesses and their accountants still ill-equipped to handle the new rules, Armbruester tells Rick Telberg for CPA Trendlines.

READ MORE →

When Tax Collectors Go Digital

By

…Where will you hide?

COLLECTING TAXES UPFRONT: In Mexico, tax returns, accounting records, and other tax disclosures must be filed in standard electronic format, driving down the cost of tax collection by 57 percent between 2006 and 2018. Meanwhile, revenue generated by audits rose an astonishing 117 percent between 2015 and 2020. (Source: Better Than Cash Alliance, The U.N., via Avalara)

By CPA Trendlines

Accounting professionals may be focused for now on Tax Season 2022. But right around the corner, a revolution in tax is coming, if the United States can get out of its own way.

Ready or not, here it comes: digitized sales tax compliance. The compliance might happen immediately after a transaction or right in the middle of it with a tax agency in between the buyer and the seller.

MORE: Brain Drain Hobbles IRS | Crisis at the IRS | The IRS’s 10 Biggest Problems | Fear and Loathing for Tax Season ’22 |  Padar Joins VC-Backed Tax Fintech for Banks |  COVID Chokes an Already Crippled IRS | Tax Regs for the Metaverse | 10 Steps to a Superior Tax Department | Accountants Critical of Competitor Price-Cutting |  Automate Busy Season with Apps You Already Use | Sales & Use Tax Costs Are Higher than Anyone Thought | Survey: Nobody Loves the Wayfair Decision | Busy Season Forecast: More Chaos  | A Woman Named Wanda Leaves an IRA Nightmare  | Are You Under-Pricing Your Client Accounting Services?  | Your Best Advice: Get Smart, Get Tech, Get Moving | Worries for Small Business Clients |

GoProCPA.comPRO Members: Log in here or upgrade to PRO today.

It isn’t happening in the U.S. yet, but at least three states are thinking about it, and in 83 other countries, it’s already a thing. In California, Florida, and Massachusetts, it may soon be a thing. The Federal Reserve and the Business Payments Coalition have already launched a pilot program to standardize electronic invoicing systems.

Digitized tax compliance is far more than the mere e-filing of invoices and tax returns. It’s the movement of paper compliance activities to the cloud, where tax authorities can not only see transactions but, in some countries, actually, get involved in them.

The potential opportunities for accountants, auditors, and tax practitioners are as yet unknown, but where there is change, there is opportunity.

Also, danger. READ MORE →

MGI and CPAAI to Merge

By

CPA firm associations combine 250 firms with $1 billion in revenues.

Left to right: Jim Holmes, International Chairman of CPAAI; Michael Parness, President of CPAAI; Clive Viegas Bennett, CEO of MGI Worldwide, and Roger Isaacs, Chairman of MGI Worldwide, celebrating the merger agreement at MGI Worldwide’s Annual Global Meeting in Dubai, UAE.

CPA Trendlines

MGI Worldwide, a global network of independent audit, tax, accounting, and advisory firms, headquartered in the U.K., and CPA Associates International, headquartered in the U.S., have announced that they will merge, effective Jan. 1, 2020.

READ MORE →

2019: Buckle Up for a Bumpy Road

By

Pro Members: click here to get full article. Or go Pro here.

Global trade wars, political winds buffet business.

By Kayleigh Padar
CPA Trendlines

CPAs should be prepared to help their clients navigate an increasingly unstable global economy and burgeoning challenges with technology, particularly cyber threats, according to a new global study of C-level executives.

MORE SURVEYS & RESEARCH: Jobs Report: 43,000 New Hires  |  CPA Wealth Advisor Survey  |  Survey: Clients Rush for TCJA Answers  |  Join the Accounting Firm and Operations Technology Survey  |  Mergers vs. Clients: Winners and Losers  |

GoProCPA.comExclusively for PRO Members. Log in here or upgrade to PRO today.

The annual study from ATKearney shows a bumpy road ahead for global executives, from the effects of Brexit to the increase in targeted fake news campaigns. READ MORE →

Tariffs: What Clients Need to Know Now

By

Talking about politics and controversy.

By Barry J. Friedman, CPA
IndustryNewsletters

Tariffs have been in the news recently. What exactly are they?

MORE: How to Talk to Clients about ‘Basis’ | Percentage-Withholding for Clients | Bitcoin: What Clients Need to Know | Supreme Court Wayfair Ruling Sows Confusion – And Opportunity
GoProCPA.comExclusively for PRO Members. Log in here or upgrade to PRO today.

Tariffs are import taxes the government imposes, like a sales tax, on goods.
READ MORE →

ANALYSIS: Local Firms Worldwide Are Losing the Wars for Talent and for Clients

By

Getting new clients tops the list of chief concerns for local firms worldwide. But the staffing shortage surges into second place. via IFAC

The eight moves smart firms are making today to win tomorrow’s battles.

By Rick Telberg
CPA Trendlines Research

Does the tax and accounting profession have a role to play in global peace, harmony, and understanding?

You may think so, based on a new CPA Trendlines analysis of a global survey of small, local, and mid-size accounting firms.

The study paints a picture of a global community of local firms with shared aspirations, expectations, challenges, and opportunities – despite (or perhaps because of) rising nationalism, protectionism, and conflicting political regimes.

MORE on TALENT MANAGMENT: Global Tax Talent Shortage Mounting into ‘Perfect Storm’  |  Accountants without Borders: Tight Talent Pool Drives Salary Increases Nationwide  |  How to Create a Talent Management Strategy |  SURVEY FINDINGS: Talent Wars, M&A Frenzy Continue  |  Why Job Descriptions Matter  |  How to Develop Home-Grown Future Leaders  |  New Staffing Strategies for the Next-Generation Accounting Firm

GoProCPA.comExclusively for PRO Members. Log in here or upgrade to PRO today.

In fact, the research finds that the talent shortage plaguing Unites States firms is now turning into a global problem. That is, by no means, a good thing. But it is another item all firms across the globe can share in common. And it is another chink in the armor of the so-called traditional business model of the owner-operator accounting firm because most of the issues flow from two overriding factors: Rampant under-pricing or owner greed (or both) that fails to build up capital reserves for re-investment in the business, and the lack of access to other sources of funding.

It’s enough to make us wonder if solutions to global problems are beyond the ability for individual nations to solve alone. Instead, multi-national worldwide strategies may be required. Maybe that’s part of the reason the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants is rebranding itself as the Association of International Certified Professional Accountants (still, just the “AICPA” to most).

But today, owning, operating or working in a perfectly “average” firm is not necessarily a sign of success. Instead, “average” seems doomed to obsolescence in irrelevancy – and on a global scale never before seen in the profession.

READ MORE →

U.S. Accounting Pay Beats London, but Not Asia

By

New global study shows 43 percent of accountants are ready to jump ship. Here’s why.

fb69989b-3259-42a1-a007-a90bfd42b715

By CPA Trendlines Research

Source: ICAS, via CPA Trendlines Research

The war for top talent in the U.S. accountancy profession is spreading worldwide, fueled by growth and increased confidence, according to a new global study obtained by CPA Trendlines.

Some 43 percent of accountants at multinational firms say they’ll probably leave their jobs within the next year or two, seeking more pay, better opportunities or both. The figures closely follow those found by CPA Trendlines in U.S.-focused studies (CPA Firms Paying Top Dollar for Talent in Nationwide Hiring Binge).

GET THE INSTANT DOWNLOAD of the FULL-SIZE INFOGRAPHIC:

READ MORE →