politics

Savage: Use Your License as a Megaphone | ARC – SLC

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Small acts of involvement add up to big wins for the profession and the public.

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Accounting ARC – Student-Led Conversations
With Arpan Grewal
Center for Accounting Transformation

Advocacy often appears on television as protest marches, campaign rallies, or contentious debates. But in a recent Accounting ARC – Student-Led Conversations episode, host Arpan Grewal and guest ZeNai Savage, CPA, recast advocacy as something more grounded and accessible: a series of everyday decisions about when to speak up, who to invite in, and how to use professional skills for public good.

MORE Accounting ARC: Baker: Interpreting Pricing Psychology | Don’t Get Fired by Your Own Automation | What Amazon Doesn’t Tell You | Royalties, Residuals, and Reality Checks | ARC-SLC | Free Speech Is a Right; Respect Is a Responsibility | Cash Bags, Casinos & Audits: How First Jobs Shape Us | Gen Z Redefines Careers | Bootleggers, Baptitsts & CPAs: Rethinking Licensure | CPA Firm Ownership Under Fire | Walking Violation: When Showing Your CPA Gets You in Trouble | Audit Bags to TikTok Tags, Gen Z Talks Success | Students Challenge Accounting’s Traditional Career Path | True Grit: Recognizing Struggles That Shape Our Successes |More Admins, Fewer Students, No Plan | What Career Advice Gets Wrong for Gen Z – And How to Fix It | Your Identity is Not a Liability | Burnout, Be Gone: Accounting Needs a Boundary Breakthrough

Savage is not a typical accountant. She is the founder of The Savage Advantage, a consulting firm that provides outsourced controller work, budget development, governance support, and board training to nonprofits and civic organizations. She also writes and speaks through Blurred Lines, a personal platform built on the belief that people do not have to separate their faith, professional life, and community service into neat compartments.

For Grewal, a Gen Z student leader, Savage’s path offers a concrete example of how young professionals can blend technical careers with civic engagement.

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IRS’s Big Annual Report: Already Out of Date as Agency Grapples with Chaos and Cuts

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Three commissioners later, and 30,000 staffers gone in just weeks.

IRS headquarters, Washington

By CPA Trendlines Research

The IRS Data Book 2024 presents a vision of a revitalized agency on a steady upward climb – just before a wave of events turned that vision upside down.

MORE: Tax and Tax Practice | IRS Makes Big Progress But, | Tax Season 2025 Begins. Ready or Not | Why Chaos at the IRS Spells New Work for Tax Professionals | Tax Turmoil and Opportunity: Breaking Down the Q1 2025 Tax Landscape

Just released, it recounts the IRS’s activities from October 2023 through September 2024.

But while the book is dressed in the confident prose of a federal annual report, events since its close date have added more than a few asterisks to its outlook.
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Accountants See Economy Improving… But Mainly for Themselves

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Accountants bullish on their firms. Not so much on clients. And outright negative on the U.S. Source: CPA Trendlines
Accountants bullish on their firms. Not so much on clients. And outright negative on the U.S. Source: CPA Trendlines

Not so much for their clients. And they’re negative on the U.S.

By Rick Telberg
CPA Trendlines

If anyone has their finger on the pulse of the American economy, it’s America’s CPAs. They’re out there in the trenches of economic activity. They know what’s happening in their nook of the nation. They feel the optimism or pessimism of their clients, the people who make the economy work.

MORE on TAX SEASON for PRO MEMBERS:  Tax Season 2016: Turning I.D. Theft from a Problem into an Opportunity  |   Accountants Speak Out on Politics and the Economy  | Lessons Learned from a Bad Busy Season  |  3 Ways to Save Time During Busy Season  |  Most Tax Professionals Call 2016 Busy Season Much Improved over Last Year | Stress Less This Tax Season  |  Is Tax Season the New Fraud Season?  |  5 Tax Season Motivation Tips  |  Recognize Your Tax Season Resources  |  Tax Season 2016: IRS in Crisis  |  Eliminate Tax Season Excuses  |  Record Pre-Season Hiring Surge: Ready for Biggest Tax Season Ever?  |  16 Qualities of a Good Tax Season Client

And tax season is when CPAs and tax preparers receive an influx of information on how their clients are doing. Some of that information pops up in the CPA Trendlines 2016 Busy Season Survey. And the news is good… well, pretty good. Well, mostly. READ MORE →

The Real Election Day Winners? Accountants

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What the election means for busy season:  Join the survey, get the answers.

by Rick Telberg 

The re-election of President Obama may sweep away a few uncertainties in tax and economic policies that have been stymieing business decision-making. But it also sets the stage for a very busy busy-season, complete with last-minute changes in code and forms.

And I’d be surprised if the partisan gridlock in Congress suddenly loosens. READ MORE →