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AICPA Online Tax Resources Editor:
Editor's note:
Steve Steve Holub is the former chair of the AICPA Tax Divisions Tax
Practice Management Committee. Mr. Zollars
For more information about this
column, contact Mr. Holub
The AICPA has resources for tax practitioners on its own website (www.aicpa.org), as well as on the CPA2Biz website (www.cpa2biz.com). Some of these are available to all visitors, others to only AICPA members and still others to only AICPA Tax Division members. This column describes several of these resources and provides their specific online locations.
www.AICPA.org Publications: The Tax Adviser (TTA) is an invaluable resource to Tax Division members. Besides being available in print, each issue of TTA is also found online at www.aicpa.org/pubs/taxadv/index.htm, accessible with a username and password made available to Tax Division members in each print copy of TTA. This information is located at the bottom of the Table of Contents page under TTA Online. The publications archives, available through a link on TTAs homepage, contain all of the magazines contents from the July 1997 issue to the present. The site maintains annual indexes for 20002002, as well as a comprehensive index for January 1990 December 1999. Electronic copies of other AICPA publications that may interest tax advisers are also available (www.aicpa.org/pubs/index.htm), including the Journal of Accountancy (from January 1997 to the present), The CPA Letter and The Practicing CPA. Code of Professional Ethics: The full text is available at www.aicpa.org/about/code/index.htm, with links to the major Code sections, as well as to a topical index of its provisions. Statements on Standards for Tax Services: The full text is available at www.aicpa.org/download/tax/SSTSfinal.pdf and is downloadable with Adobe Acrobat Reader, which is free at www.adobe.com/products/acrobat/readstep2.html. CPA Links: This useful page (www.aicpa.org/yellow/index.htm ) provides direct links to third-party resources; see Exhibit 1. It is a gateway to many websites run by agencies and courts and is also a source of official government documents. For instance, the site has direct links to each states revenue department and CPA society, as well as to official state forms. It also offers connections to Federal tax-related sites, including direct links to pages with IRS forms and publications and to much more.
Taxation Team: This page (www.aicpa.org/members/div/tax/index.htm) is a source of information on the AICPA Taxation Team and tax-related matters. It frequently pools AICPA resources helpful for analyzing proposed and final tax legislation and regulations, as well as official Tax Division testimony and commentary, prepared by various Tax Division committees and technical resource panels (TRPs). It offers direct links to primary sources. The Tax Divisions commentary casts light on the issues that committee and TRP members find significant. The testimony and commentary help make sense of new developments. Finally, this page has the e-mail addresses and telephone numbers of AICPA Taxation Team members, who are available for suggestions and product information.
www.CPA2Biz.com Additional resources for tax advisers are found at the CPA2Biz website. Although some of the sites sections are open to the general public, AICPA members should officially register online to get the full benefit of its offerings. Registration requires a last name and an AICPA membership number. If members cannot locate their membership number, it appears on the mailing label of their personal hard copy of either the Journal of Accountancy or The CPA Letter (although, unfortunately, not on TTAs label). The membership number is the last eight numbers in the string of numbers just above the subscribers name; for more information, see Need help finding your AICPA membership number?, under Register Now, on the CPA2Biz homepage. Each member who registers online receives a username and password, necessary to access the members only areas of the site. Some resources at www.cpa2biz.com are available only by separate purchase. However, the site contains many free items for Tax Division members. Tax Resource Center: The CPA2Biz Tax Resource Center at www.cpa2biz.com/ResourceCenters/Tax/default.htm has links to topic-specific pages; see Exhibit 2. Each of these has connections to assorted documents and articles.
While visiting the Tax Resource Center, Tax Division members can sign up for The AICPA Tax Insider e-newsletter, delivered via e-mail by the AICPA, or send an e-mail directly to Tax_Insider_subscribe@email.cpa2biz.com, with a subject line of subscribe. The newsletter contains links to short articles on a choice of tax-related topics and current tax developments. Recent newsletters are available for review before subscribing (www.cpa2biz.com/News/Tax+Insider/default.htm).
Tax practice guides and
checklists:
Annually, the Tax Division ships a CD with checklists and tax practice
guides to Tax Division members. These resources are also available
online at
www.cpa2biz.com/ResourceCenters/Tax/AICPA+Tax+Section/Tax+Practice+ Documents are downloadable in Adobe Acrobat Reader (.pdf) or Microsoft Word (.doc) format (Acrobat Reader software is downloadable for free (see above) for all versions of Windows, MacIntosh and Linux). The Adobe format is better for simply printing a document that looks exactly like the original printed version; however, a document in this format cannot be altered. Microsoft Word is preferable for AICPA-provided documents that may require customization, as the documents can be edited by programs that can read recent versions of Microsoft Word files. However, Microsoft Word and most other recent-vintage word-processing software can also read the files, including the freely available OpenOffice.org software program (www.openoffice.org), which includes an entire office suite with a spreadsheet presentation software package and word processor. Minor formatting problems may arise when printing documents, due to the various versions of Microsoft Word, and differences in printers and printer drivers.
Explore Both the AICPA and CPA2Biz Websites can help Tax Division members to deal efficiently and effectively with the large number and range of tax-related issues. Tax Division members can take advantage of the many resources available by using each site and learning its ins-and-outs. From Edward K. Zollars, CPA, Henricks, Martin, Thomas & Zollars, Ltd., Phoenix, AZ |
