In These Turbulent Times, Leaders Must Lead!

cpatrendlines.comSix things you needed to start doing yesterday.

By Allan Koltin

In the face of this unprecedented global pandemic, Leaders must Lead! We need to fill our days with talking to our people, clients, and our families and engaging them in the reality of the situation while at the same time stressing the positive things going on.

RELATED: All CPA Trendlines Special Coronavirus Coverage

I was on a call this morning with a client and I was sharing how wonderful it was to have all three kids back home (they would have been studying abroad, at college, or going to high school) and how nice it was to have family dinners together again. I was also sharing the positives with the kids that their grandparents were healthy, safe, and getting calls from so many family members and how important this was to them. As I was walking the dogs this morning it occurred to me that I heard birds chirping and that I had been “so busy being busy” for the past four decades that beautiful sounds like this or the smell of the morning air were never on my mind. At a deeper level, and to equate it to a sporting event, I feel like the proverbial “scoreboard” has malfunctioned and there is now a new way to keep score, and it is becoming the new normal.

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Indemnification Helps Partners Sleep Well

Businessman sleeping with a giant dollar bill for a blanket7 common conditions.

By R. Peter Fontaine

Whenever a professional liability lawsuit is lodged against an accounting firm, chances are one or more of the firm’s partners will be named. They are “front and center” in the client relationship, and the client looks to the partner to make sure everything is right.

MORE: The Physics of Accounting Firm Mergers | A Lawyer’s Guide for Spring Cleaning Your Accounting Firm | 6 Types of Due Diligence Procedures | Cultural Optimization: Making Mergers Successful | What to Ponder Before Issuing a Letter of Intent | The Four Ways ‘Non-Competes’ #FAIL in the Social Media Age
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Current and former partners of CPA firms are wise to ask, “How am I covered in the event of a lawsuit is brought against me?” With the right indemnification and professional liability insurance coverage, both active and former partners should be able to sleep well at night.
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Tax Season Is Hacker Season

Checklist: Five things to do today to protect your firm and your clients.

The CPA Trendlines Busy Season Barometer:
New year, new strategies

Join the survey. Get the results.

By Jess Coburn
Applied Innovations

Businesses of all sizes are targets from what has become the most vicious, innovative, and lucrative criminal endeavors we’ve ever witnessed. And tax practitioners are particularly easy targets.

MORE ON BUSY SEASON 2020: IRS Urged to Form Tax Preparer Strategy5 Small Leaks That Can Sink a Tax SeasonData Points Down as Tax Season OpensThe Fight for New Tax Clients5 Tax Review KeysTax Pros Forecast a Better 2020 |  See all Tax Season 2020 coverage here

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The financial services industry is perhaps the most targeted because of the value of data it possesses. And the most frequently targeted are CPAs and those who prepare tax returns.

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2020 Outlook: Top 5 Emerging Risks for CPAs

Young businessman walking on bungee cord between question mark and dollar signAnd the top five emerging opportunities, if you handle them right.

By Ken Mackunis
Executive Vice President
Aon Affinity, Professional Firms

Risk can come from unexpected places. As CPAs look to capitalize on economic and industry trends to grow their business in 2020, they need to be vigilant in identifying and mitigating the risks that go hand in hand with the expansion of capabilities and capacity.

Here’s a look at the top five areas that can pose the most risk – and reward – for CPAs in the new year. READ MORE →

Deducting Litigation Expenses: New Appellate Court Decision

Statue of scales of justiceAuditors said the activity wasn’t profit-seeking.

Portrait of Christopher DeMayo
DeMayo

By Christopher M. DeMayo
Withum

The Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals issued a decision on March 29, 2019, that explains some of the requirements for deducting litigation expenses.

The facts of the case are bizarre, but the controlling legal principles are not.

In a nutshell, the taxpayer was the sole shareholder of a company that was a commercial cleaning franchisor (“Company”). In November 2002, the taxpayer traveled on vacation with his girlfriend and two employees of his company to the Caribbean island of St. Maarten, where he owned a home. One of the employees was a bodyguard and the other was a former girlfriend.

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